222

The rise of ID/face scanning to access bars & clubs (web.archive.org)

submitted 1 week ago by freedickpics@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] excursion22@piefed.ca 4 points 1 week ago

ID scanning has been a thing at clubs in Canada for a long time. There was no marketing associated, but I imagine it was an easy way to identify people banned from the bar.

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago

It happened to me for the first time at Calgary Stampede this summer. I refused and was denied entry to a concert I'd already paid for.

[-] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

I don't think it's legal in Quebec under provincial privacy laws.

this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026

222 points (99.6% liked)

Privacy

45016 readers

746 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS