Bar and pub owners are thrilled that the system helps them identify undesirable customers: staff can enter comments about customers that's available to all participating establishments. Patrons are worried that it violates their right to privacy.
Once this system is in place, it will be impossible to meet friends at the pub without having the event recorded.
I have some questions about the system, such as:
- If you don't have a driver's license or refuse to let it be swiped, will you be refused service?
- If you don't leave a large enough tip, will that lead to a bad rating in the system?
- Who has access to the database now? And in the future, will the police and government demand access to your records?
- If you refuse to participate as a patron, does *that* event get entered and forwarded to police?
- If you visit (the fictitious) "Joe's Pub" with a friend, then down the road it turns out that it's also frequented by criminals, does that implicate you, because you were once a patron too?
- When you can't even visit the local pub without an organization tracking your movements, isn't that a police state?
The fact is, the more information there is about people, the more it will be abused. The myriad bits of information that's collected about you may be harmless by itself (after all, you're not hiding anything, right?), but there are people who will intentionally or unintentionally use the information against you.
Facts can be misinterpreted. Wrong conclusions can be drawn from innocent data. Decisions can be made against you based on faulty interpretations of the recorded events in your life.
So the next time you're at the pub with friends, if the serving staff asks to photograph you and scan your driver's license, don't do it. Their invasive system won't work if patrons refuse to cooperate.
Link: High-tech targets bad bar customers
Cubey Terra