Posted on 01/10/2008 6:37:05 PM PST by Eyes Unclouded
Getting more offensive as age takes its toll.
I think I’ll just start giving these stores bogus SS#’s when they ask.
I would have walked out of the door. This company is actually very stupid as a major privacy breach on personal data from that scanner would cost them far more than a single alcohol fine and likely even more than losing their alcohol license for a while if they had several incidents.
No, it wasn’t an ad hominem. It as an opinion. You should know the difference.
Nope, I work as an operations manager for a grocery chain in 19 states. I can tell you identity/card theft happens at the store level all the time. I personally dealt with over a dozen cases last year alone. You'd be surprised. There is no reason for driver's license IDs to be scanned. It is not required by law and with proper training isn't even needed. The liability to them under a major personal information breach would be far, far larger than any alcohol fine would be.
This is a huge issue and I’m glad someone is bringing some light to it. These machines aren’t new. They’re just more widespread now. I encountered one of them at a college-town bar in 2004. I handed an ID to someone who shined a light on it, bent it, looked up at me and back down against the ID, all normal activity in a college town. Then he handed it to the other bouncer who ran it through a machine. Without asking me. I did not consent to that and I probably would not have entered the bar had I known it would be done.
It’s also happening when you try to buy Sudafed (the real kind, that actually works, over the counter).
If it’s a sting, you can simply ask “are you 21 or older” and they have to tell you truthfully. Verifying the ID visually is acceptable unless it’s an obvious fake. There is absolutely no need to scan someone’s ID.
When enough people say HELL NO, then they will stop. Undercover investigators don’t pay the rent. Customers who may object to being coerced into an open-ended invasion of their privacy have far more power than anyone does.
There also may be some issues in State law of fraud with respect to “uninformed consent”. At the very least, full disclosure of serving policy should have been made by a properly sized sign on every customer entrance. In many states such notice is required if the premises has video surveillance.
Are you nuts?
Texas obviously isn’t one of those states. In probably a good 3/4 or more of the state a unicard (google it) is required to drink, and one of the requirements to get a unicard is your driver’s license number on file. It’s been that way for a good 15-20 years, and so far, there haven’t been any huge lawsuits.
Whenever I buy beer, I ask if they want to see my ID. They don't.
That makes me want to buy more beer.
We aren't in Texas (Yet) but it really doesn't matter. Low level employees making $7-$15 an hour will steal from time to time anyway they can. Whether it be from a customer or employer they don't care. Most incidents are small because people at the store simply do not have the technical know-how to extract large amounts of data. It happens though, enough so that all merchants now at Tier 1 or 2 for credit/debit cards are required to comply with strict security procedures (PCI Compliance). The unicard is a voluntary system so if you want to do it, I don't see the harm. Requiring it though is stupid.
I will simply say this: you are far too trusting of information to low skill labor employees.
As an afterthought:
All I need is your name, OR, your address, OR, your term of military service and name, OR your High School (your fist name only needed), OR your telephone number, OR the stores you shop at, OR, your maiden name (if applicable), OR, your car license number, OR, … hopefully you get the picture. Any information and a few dollars and I will know all about you.
Even your FR name and a simple Google search would give me enough information (via simple trace software) to get all the information I would need to compromise your existence.
Just think what the government can do!
No. I think this guy is overreacting but the general question he asks are on point. In a few years we could see logging of scans at bars and places...
Resistance is futile.
“There is absolutely no need to scan someone’s ID.”
I agree. I was responding to a specific post that had nothing to do with scanning.
“If it’s a sting, you can simply ask “are you 21 or older” and they have to tell you truthfully. “
Nope. I *have* to ask to *see* an ID, verify picture and birth date and refuse to sell prohibited items if the ID is not presented by anyone that “appears” to be under 27. As I said, the specifics vary from state to state.
ping
Entrapment isn't legal anywhere. If you ask someone whether they are not they are old enough, if it's a sting, they have to tell you. The company you work for may have told you different, but they are wrong. We require to verify ID and to punch the date of birth into the system. Most states do "require" you verify ID but if you ask a sting if they are 21 or older, they have to tell you regardless of whether or not they are 21. The problem is, you don't know it's a sting.
Put your license in the see-through window of your wallet.
If you are asked for it, show it police-badge style.
You are in control of your license. If some bureaucratic weenie asks you to take it out, ask them why.
If you don’t like the answer. Leave, then tell the corporate HQ why. At very least the manager.
Time to stand up. The author is 100% right.
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