[IP] more on With ID swipe, Big Brother bellies up to the bar
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael T Zimmer <michael.zimmer@xxxxxxx>
Date: November 21, 2006 1:04:13 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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@xxxxxxx
w: http://michaelzimmer.org
----- Original Message -----
From: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
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@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 21, 2006 11:39:08 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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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