[IP] more on With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael T Zimmer <michael.zimmer@nyu.edu>
Date: November 21, 2006 1:04:13 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar

About 8 years ago, before I returned to academia (and, eventually,
privacy advocacy), I worked on the development of just such a product
for an electronic payment processing company. The idea was to program
the credit card payment terminal to accept a drivers license card swipe,
read the mag stripe, print out a receipt, and retain a record of the
swipe. An important part of the pitch was that by having both a printed
and data record of the swipe, the bar/liquor store would have additional
proof that they actually checked the patron's id if ever questioned by
law enforcement. We also pitched the benefits of collecting zip code and
other data (stored on mag stripe) for marketing purposes.

The catch, at least back then, was that not all states used mag stripes,
most states had different data formats, and others were already moving
to 2-d or 3-d bar codes. Alas, the product never got fully off the
ground, but VeriFone has something similar:
http://www.verifone.com/products/software/valueadded_apps/index.html

Today, I shudder at the memory that helped to develop such a system...

-michael.

-----
Michael T. Zimmer
 Doctoral Candidate, Culture and Communication, New York University
 Student Fellow, Information Law Institute, NYU Law School
e: michael.zimmer@nyu.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org

----- Original Message -----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 11:49 am
Subject: [IP] With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Ed Biebel <edward@biebel.net>
> Date: November 21, 2006 11:39:08 AM EST
> To: dave@farber.net, ip@v2.listbox.com
> Subject: With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar
>
> For IP if you like
>
> http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/
> news-10/1164091705151690.xml&coll=1
>
> With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar
> Tuesday, November 21, 2006
> BY IAN T. SHEARN
> Star-Ledger Staff
> It's College Night at KatManDu, a popular Trenton nightclub, and the
> late-arriving crowd is predictably young.
>
> Bouncers pat down male patrons and politely ask for IDs. They swipe
> everyone's driver's license through a small, yellow electronic box
> that reads a bar code and instantly displays the customer's age.
>
> Club managers love the gadget, and it's rapidly becoming standard
> issue at the bigger clubs in Manhattan, New Jersey and elsewhere.
>
> But the box does more than just check birth dates. It also retains the
> customer's name, address, license number -- even height, weight and
> eye color. All that information then can easily be downloaded into a
> computer system.
>
> Most patrons have no idea their information is being electronically
> stored -- nor are they asked if they mind.
>
> "Why do they need it?" asked Tara Fort, a 22-year-old customer from
> Hamilton Township, who became agitated when told the scanning device
> was storing personal information.
>
> <snip>
>
>
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