A photo of your passport, face, and a biometric match — all to get a drink
web.archive.org
Privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts say the growing use of ID scanning at venues raises the risk of personal data breaches. They argue a more ambitious overhaul of privacy laws is needed.

TL;DR

ID scanning is becoming a more common requirement to access bars and clubs in Australia (and worldwide). A company called ScanTek is used in over 1,000 clubs in Aus and provides tools such as biometric-matching someone’s face to an ID, detecting fake IDs, flagging people and sharing data with other venues automatically

As well as verifying ages, ScanTek boasts “collect marketing information from IDs and drivers licences, which business owners can use to target specific demographics with promotions” on its website in a pitch to business owners. Though they claim to not share any of this with third parties

Australia’s privacy laws are vague, don’t specify what can be collected and how it must be stored, and only say that companies shouldn’t keep data for longer than is “reasonable”

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    35·
    10 days ago

    As well as verifying ages, ScanTek boasts “collect marketing information from IDs and drivers licences, which business owners can use to target specific demographics with promotions”

    And here we have the real reason why they want the scanning

    Added security to keep the random asshole out, sure, but the marketing is the point. Fuck that shit, if rather not go out to a bar than this

  • Matt@lemmy.ml
    30·
    10 days ago

    Here in Slovakia I just show my ID to a bartender if he has any doubts about my age. And then he deduces my age based on the date of birth on the ID.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      9·
      10 days ago

      Here in America it’s the same. Some places always check everyone, some just check young looking people. I don’t love it, but it’s better than face scanning

      • dai@lemmy.world
        11·
        9 days ago

        This is actually pretty minimal in Australia (as someone who has worked in Hospitality for 20+ years)

        Very few venues actually require this to enter, the majority check at the door or once you ae inside the venue.

        Edit: Some owners of multiple venues have rolled these systems out in the past that I’ve seen, generally ones that have seen a rise in patron issues. Its handy that if someone has caused issues in one place they won’t get allowed into another; but it’s not worth the privacy risk in my eyes.

  • kablez@lemmy.world
    14·
    10 days ago

    The worst part is all our data is stored on American servers run by megacorpos. ID information scanned by venue terminals is one, but even private health records and sensitive government documents are being chucked into Amazon S3, Azure/OneDrive and Dropbox.

    The government should be prioritising secure, independent digital infrastructure but they’re too busy giving our tax dollars to foreign consulting firms so they can build bad websites.

  • Tempus Fugit@lemmy.world
    5·
    10 days ago

    This would just deter me from going to those establishments. I guess they’re doing so well they won’t miss my business.

  • despite_velasquez@lemmy.world
    5·
    10 days ago

    How is the most dystopian nanny state news always coming out from Australia first, and then the rest of the world rushes to copy them?