What was this?

Wrong thing to do motorhead.

It is none of their business unless you look like an underage male & the club serves alcohol. Then you show them. You DO NOT give them the license to put in a machine. You GO somewhere else.

This is a virtually universal practice in Edmonton clubs. I refuse to submit to the ID scan. Usually I can bullshit my way past the scan but there remains one club in Edmonton that I have never visited because my bullshit skills haven't been good enough.

I'd leave, they have no right to scan licenses and put whatever info into their database.

I have had a life time membership card for the Platinum Plus chain for about 10 years. 2 years ago they went high tech so that they could just swipe your card. Before they gave me my new card they gave me a form to fill out. There were about 20 questions on it. Name, address, phone number, favorite drink, favorite dancer, etc. I was not about to give them all that personal info. I did give them my name and address and that was enough for them.

Hasn't happened to me yet. Been to Dancers in Indy a month or two back and no such scanning then. When I saw the review, I discounted it as being one of those competitor SC "reviews." But not sure.

Couple years ago I went to a few clubs in Pasco County, FL that, according to them was County Ordinance, to write down name & Address in the event of any problems. They also made you sign a waver that you're ok with nude dancers, blah, blah, blah. Of course everyone signed the waiver as , John Smith. I knew it wasn't a County Ordinance, because others didn't have that requirement. Didn't go back since. They were dive clubs anyway.

They can copy my licenses all they want

They my be checking for valid drivers licenses. They may have gotten tagged for serving underage persons alcohol, and their "but he used a fake ID" claim didn't fly, or doing so was made a condition of keeping their booze license for some other infraction or something like that. Whether or not either of those is the case, they probably *were* recording the guy's name for later use in mailings or something.

Actually, I am surprised there is so much uproar about this one.

99% of high end clubs in Manhattan have an ID scanner. It does not connect to a database or anything, all it does is report if the ID is legitimate or not.

I've been to the club referenced by the reviewer a few times and it's decent but certainly not high end.

And in my middle ages, I've only been asked to show ID but a few times. I guess different parts of the country.

"99% of high end clubs in Manhattan have an ID scanner. It does not connect to a database or anything, all it does is report if the ID is legitimate or not."

Any idea as to how they determine that the ID is legitimate without connecting to a database? I think that's wishful thinking.

The only club that does this to me often is the Spearmint Rhino chain. I always wonder what they do w/ DL info. My biggest fear is that I would start getting advertising from them in the mail, but thankfully that hasn't happened.

I think all of the clubs in Albuquerque scan driver's licenses upon entry. I think the magnetic stripe on the back carries your birthdate, so they don't need access to an external database, although they may have one. The Albuquerque clubs usually scan the front side as well. This is kept for some arbitrary time, I think a day or so and then erased. If they have trouble at the club they can look at the scans or the perpetrator. It was reported in the Albuquerque Journal that is how TD's identified the guy who shot the bouncer 6or so months back. They were able to go through the scans, identify him from the frontside of his license, and then show the cops his picture.

What I find repulsive is the use of a license that says you know how to operate a car and are licensed to do so as ID for all sorts of things, including citizenship. It is not rational. But that is another arguement for another day.


Whether this is bad or good depends on

The most likely back-story is that the club is being pressured by the local authorities to prove that they aren't allowing any underage patrons and prove that they aren't accepting any phony ID's.

Of course you have the right to simply not enter the club. But you also have a right to ask the club management about their privacy policy regarding the information about you that they are collecting. If they are collecting personal information about you then they should have a privacy policy, just like you would expect an online site. If they don't have a privacy policy or you think that they are BS-ing you then there are other clubs out there.

But bear in mind that a valid legal demand from law enforcement (warrant, subpoena, etc.) trumps even the strongest privacy policy.

for those doubting this review because of prior experiense a little history here.

On June 1st the city smoking ordinance and became no smoking in bars. I went to Dancers that night. They asked to see Drivers license which is abnormal for someone almost 60. I showed DL in billfold and he said he needed to handle it. Handed him card and before I knew it with out a word of warning the bastard scanned it. Well at this time I was complaining. He stated that they discarded data after 24hrs. Now I don't believe him as I was told multiple thing.
- they use it due to new smoking law. All other clubs will be. LIE but it was 1st night and I didn't have reference point.
- They use it for reentry.
- As I continued to complain. Was told it didn't scan my card anyway.

I went back on a Thursday a couple weeks later and they didn't scan. Then the next week a Friday visit was scanned again.

If my favorite dancer changes to there I'll put up with it but don't like the evasive lies.

Interesting side note talking to a dancer her on the 22nd she talked about how business had been down, because of smoking change. Next time time in another club I asked and was told by the dancer in other club she hadn't noticed a difference. I don't think dancers are best data on club business but wonder if as word gets out they get hurt as only club in town scanning

Only was asked once some years ago, and that was at the Cheetah in Hallandale, Fl. They said they needed to copy it. I just said. "It sucks to need!" and walked!

I have seen this a few times in various clubs. About 7 years or so a lot of bars in Columbus Ohio, both strip clubs and non strip clubs, were doing using ID scanners to avoid the overzealous liquor control board. Enough people complained about them that the clubs got rid of them in about a year.

It's getting to be mighty big brotherish around this country

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/st…

If I went in to any bar in the US, SC or not, and they wanted to scan my government issued ID as a condition of entry, I would leave. Of course in Canada I'd have no problem with it.

It's a loss-prevention/CYA strategy - as mentioned it's used so that there's some record of who was there and of what ID was presented, in case there's trouble or a customer disputes the charges on their credit card. That way it's not just their word vs. ours that they carded you and it looked legit.

I have yet to encounter license scanning right at the door just for entering. I have been in clubs where thay scan if someone wants to go VIP using a credit card, though, which reinforces the loss-prevention theory.

@georgmicrodong: Offline verification can be done merely in order to check that what's encoded is exactly the same thing as what it says on the face of the carsd; i.e. that it's not a fake made by substituting your picture and name onto someone else's cloned license or a blank dummy. Many states when they went digital legislated that the encoding should only contain exactly the same info as can be read on the face of the license plus some hashcoding to make it unique. If your counterfeiter has gone through the effort to actually write in matching code in the same data format and file address as the DMV would have, then that's beyond what a merchant can be reasonably expected to suspect and follow up.

@Harderlap: "What I find repulsive is the use of a license that says you know how to operate a car and are licensed to do so as ID for all sorts of things, including citizenship." -- Indeed another topic, but it does tie in with this in that with "modern" licenses people worry about what information other than what's on the face of it is encoded on them (magnetic stripes, barcodes, RF chips); it's not unreasonable.

Those of us worried about this should write our state/provincial legislators and demand that they enact a law narrowly defining who can access encoded information on the DL or keep a copy thereof, and for what purposes.

Handing over my license to a stripclub employee to be scanned is a non-negotiable item for me along with mandatory valet parking for my own car. (exception made for rentals). I've already walked away from 2 "membership type" clubs that scanned license on to membership card.

When registering in some hotels on own time and dime, some want to see license. A few years ago, one scanned the barcode, but that was to expedite putting name/address in vs manually typing info on to registration. That may be individual hotel policy.

Obviously, banks, loan cos., airlines, rental car counter, and some doctor offices need to see license. Few scan or make copy of it. A stripclub doing it = no go for me...........

I've been to a couple clubs where they do this. All they really want to know is whether your ID is legit, but they don't want to stare at your license. I believe the machine enlarges your license to make it more readable, like a magnifying glass. I don't think it's anything to worry about.

I do not know why dancers would do that as it is a low mileage club. The higher mileage and membership clubs do this to make sure you are not LE. Godiva's in Greenvile does this. I left.

There have been times I've used my passport for ID at bars. It provides proof of my age without also providing address and is not scannable by common equipment.

The Spearmint Rhino in West Palm tried that shit the other day. I'm still young enough to get carded every once in a while, so when the girl asked for my ID I wasn't shocked - but when she wanted to take it out of my hand and scan it I pulled it back and walked out.

The valet noticed my immediate departure, asked me to hang for a second and went inside. 30 seconds later the manager was walking me to my table, with no questions about ID's.

The really funny part is, if you go in during the day there isn't anyone at the door checking anything much less scanning shit.