Defending My Privacy- One Beer at a Time
The BCS Championship is in Phoenix tonight (that’s the college football championship game for our overseas and raging-geek readers) and Ohio State seems to have brought around 60,000 of their fans into town. A couple of buddies of mine from Colorado are in town for the game and we spent the weekend out and about. Last night we were heading into one of the bigger Buckeye bar-parties in town and I was totally stunned when it came time to give the bouncer our IDs. As everyone walked up he grabbed driver’s licenses and ran the mag stripes through a handheld scanner. Being both moderately sober and the security paranoid I am the conversation went like this: Me: So, are you just checking for fakes or storing any of the info? Bouncer: Both, it’s mostly for our database statistics. Me: Like how many people came in? Bouncer: Just your name, date of birth, and driver’s license number. Me: Ah. Umm… Okay. Any chance you can skip it and just give my ID a visual check? At that point he, looking like I was some Unabomber-like freak, checked my ID the old fashioned way and let me in. Of course, while watching him I noticed that he was so intent on scanning IDs into his little machine that he sort of, you know, didn’t check the faces of people handing them over. That might explain the one 20 year old girl running around stealing drinks, grabbing any guy within reach in a manner that’s rarely free, and putting the Vegas showgirls to shame. I can’t really think of any good reason a bar named Mickey’s Hangover needs that info. And in the process they reduced their security by relying on a machine to find fakes, and forgetting to see if the ID handed over even slightly resembled the patron at the door. Seriously folks- I don’t think I’m overly paranoid, but it’s hard to justify letting a random bar keep my vital stats just to buy an overpriced beer. Share: