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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

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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"

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[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 15 points 1 week ago

I remember dance clubs taking photos of id's back in the 90's. first time I encountered it and I was like. WTF! thing is back then they did not have the equipment and infrastructure to hold it long term and were not part of a chain or had been bought up by holding companies. It was the same with security cameras that at most kept video for a few days and sometimes only one. Once we got to never delete data it became a nightmare.

this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026

222 points (99.6% liked)

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