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Bars' Scanning of ID Violates BC Privacy Laws
AnonymousIslander writes "The Information and Privacy Commissioner for the Province of British Columbia has ruled that electronic scanning of driver's licenses (and similar forms of ID) as a condition of entering a bar or nightclub is a violation of BC's Personal Information Privacy Act. The decision (PDF), while dealing with one specific club, will still have ramifications across the entire province. It is not known if the nightclub in question will attempt to appeal the decision in court. A similar decision was reached last year in Alberta.
The system in question is known as BarWatch, and has been the target of criticism by many for a number of years. Despite this, a number of bars/nightclubs and restaurants in communities across Canada have installed similar systems, and just days before this decision came down there were calls for the expansion of BarWatch in Victoria to cover restaurants and other establishments serving the post-bar crowds." Similar systems are in use across the US, as we have discussed.
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Sent from your iPad.
I am not a number, I am a free customer!
You will treat me as such, or I will take my custom elsewhere.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Perhaps I should have been more clear about what to cite.
None of those links are relevant to this case, as IL, NY, and IA are not in British Columbia, Canada.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
After all, it's not as though I've never encountered a bouncer who's a rage-driven, 'roid-crazed whack job with delusions of adequacy, a two-figure IQ, and an ironclad belief that every woman in the world desperately wants access to his shrunken little dick. Exactly the kind of person I want having access to my sister's personal information. And if there's ever been a "security system" in a bar that couldn't be defeated in five minutes by a bartender with a Grade 8 education and a weakness for white powder, I've yet to see it. So I wouldn't be all that confident that the twitchy little guy in the corner with the laptop and the Klingon Vengeance Blade isn't paging through the personal data of everybody on the premises even as I try to hide my "Trekkies Are Assholes" t-shirt.
The day I surrender the contents of anything on a mag strip to the lack-wits, thieves and bottom feeders who infest your average bar is the day I move to Iran and stand on a street corner with a megaphone and invite Ali Khamenei to blow me.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Since when did Kansas City become a part of Canada?
P.S. You should check out this new site called Google Maps. It lets you find things geographically (hint: Canada is North... that's up).
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.