UK begins Fingerprinting Pub and Club Patrons at the door

[Kristijntje]

The government is funding the roll out of fingerprint security at the doors of pubs and clubs in major English cities...

Some licensees were not happy to have their punters fingerprinted, but are all now apparently behind the idea. Not only does the council let them open later if they join the scheme, but the system costs them only £1.50 a day to run.

Oh, and they are also coerced into taking the fingerprint system. New licences stipulate that a landlord who doesn't install fingerprint security and fails to show a "considerable" reduction in alcohol-related violence, will be put on report by the police and have their licences revoked.

Offenders can be banned from one pub or all of them for a specified time - usually a period of months - by a committee of landlords and police called Pub Watch. Their offences are recorded against their names in the fingerprint system. Bradburn noted the system had a "psychological effect" on offenders...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/...gerprints/

[jezebel]

[kim]

bollocks to that!

[mandy]

A related article on driver's license scanning by some US clubs:

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...

full article: http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/b...151690.xml&coll=1

[sliique]

I have it, on very good authority, that in the VERY near future, the US Govt will require, yes require, ALL states to issue a Driver's License with a damn chip embedded in it.  Theory being that ANY license holder can be instantly located with GPS.

I told my source, a SC Highway Cop that I doubted that would fly, definite invasion of privacy, there will be a class action lawsuit filed quickly, challenging it.  It is not a rumor, the Cop had attended a seminar for all the Cops in his division, that very day.

Problem is, until its resolved, the licenses WILL be in use because, for one reason, the Feds will with-hold any highway use funds from any State that doesnt comply.

[BellisimaJ.]

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...

Invasion of privacy, identity theft, lack of government oversight, ACLU, scary-----------all words and phrases that come to mind upon reading this. 8)

I have it, on very good authority, that in the VERY near future, the US Govt will require, yes require, ALL states to issue a Driver's License with a damn chip embedded in it.  Theory being that ANY license holder can be instantly located with GPS.

This is too much. Anyone know of a country/place where government still knows it's frickin place??