BarWatch: A threat to personal privacy?

Remove all ads!

I found an article on site while surfing around. Here in Canada there is a new system that can be purchased for increased security at bars and clubs. They apparently take your drivers licence (no matter how old you are), scan it into a machine, and use it to identify you. Now, that doesn't seem like a bad idea, but for a few facts the article I found mentioned.

Here are some Barwatch Facts:

The rest of the article is here (CAUTION -- There is some use of foul language in this article. If this offends you, don't click the link).

And for a diverse outlook, this is the BarWatch Website.

So, what's your opinion on it?

 

Luxury.

Our government is about 18 months off having every drivers license holder in Queensland tagged with a microchip. No, I don’t mean they’re going to implant anything in us… but they may as well. They’re going to put a microchip on our license cards, and they’re going to store all sorts of things about us on it.

I don’t think the specifications are finalized yet, but there is already great debate about whether sensitive things like criminal history will be placed on the card. Even if not, it provides a very convenient way to collect information about people. There’s no tedious scanning of photos which must be OCR’d or interpreted by humans… they can yank a unique identifier along with your address and other details straight out of the chip.

It’s suspected that it will wind up with credit-card functionality as well, making it dead easy to track your spending habits, and identify you for a nice marketing campaign. Reminds me of the whole “hi, we’re Intel, and we’d like to broadcast a unique ID from your machine” initiative.

Anyway, for anyone that’s interested in where this is up to, just look up “Queensland Smart Card” in Google.

 

Not only do I think this represents an invasion of privacy, I'd say it's downright illegal. As a proprietor of an establishment serving alcoholic beverages, you certainly have to make sure that everyone entering your establishment is over the legal drinking age. However, I don't see why you need an exact copy of their driver's license to do this. I mean, how can this be legal? By what rights does a bar have to copy your ID? It just doesn't make any sense.

 

It does make sense. The sense it makes is also known as profit. It's profitable, it brings money, therefore all kinds of catchy arguments will be used to support it... and bring more cash.

The problem is not the law itself but how it is enforced. In most cases, copying and storing personal data or sending snail mail spam to addresses obtained without direct consent to receiving ads in the future, are already illegal. The problem is practical impunity.

 

It's really scary to see how easily personel information is obtained with modern techniques like ID scanners. Luckily, at least where I come from (the European Union), we have strict privacy laws.

Clearly this company is breaking several privacy laws.

What bothers me the most about this article is that the police participates in this joint venture. The police is a body of the State, therefore the State is responsible for every action taken by the police. When the police participates in this joint venture, then the State participates in this joint venture. The State is bound by the constitution and every other law. I can't imagine the Canadian laws not having strict privacy regulations. By participating in this joint venture, the Canadian State is acting against the law, which is of course far worse then an individual person or company acting against the law.

 

How is it profitable ? Here in the Netherlands we don't need ID to walk into a bar or a pub, but once they start asking for it, and make copies of it as well, you can be sure they'll lose a lot of customers, and i would be one of them.

A lot of people have stopped visiting bars anyway, since the prices of a simple beer have gone through the roof, but this would be the last drop, the nail in the coffin for barowners.

I'll drink mine at home, thank you very much.

 

It certainly can be profitable to the bar owner if he sells your information to a mailing list. It still sounds completely illegal to me.

 

I don't get it, why would these people pay so much money for information on a whole group of people, who will only become pissed off with him if he starts sending them snail mail and other junk ? I have absolutely nothing against advertising, but this seems more like harassment to me.

 

Agreed, which is why it sounds so illegal to me. Although in terms of junk mail, do people really do anything about it? I don't. I just toss it in the garbage. I don't know anyone who actually goes to the trouble to call up and tell a company to stop sending them stuff. So even though people might be annoyed slightly by it, they probably will still go to the bar, and the bar owner makes more money.

 

I do. Well, in a way.... i've stopped the people who deliver these goods a few time, and asked them nicely to stop shoving that junk in my mailbox. They always say they'll remember not to do it anymore, but the next day my hallway is full again.

And this aren't simple commercial folders anymore, but entire packages of books, all put together in a plastic bag. If i leave my house and come back after three or four days, i have serious trouble opening my frontdoor, because of all the crap that's lying on the other end.

 

The way I deal with junk mail is I use my hotmail account to sign up for free things. Something I never do is tell the spammers to take me off their list. Most junk mail is randomly sent so any acknowledgement your a legitimate entity just brings more junk mail and lets them know to put you on their lists. Most people who send junk mail sell addresses to other people for profit.

 

I don't see the point of it. For years, it has been enough just to view someone's ID. There is no way that this system reinforces the compliance requirements in any way. Plus, it sounds like an expensive way to go about getting people's names addresses. I get a million names and addresses given to me for free every year in the Phone Book.......