Recent reports
have
raised alarm
about the use of PatronScan, an ID-checking and face-scanning system, at multiple LGBTQ+ bars in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. Much of the attention has focused on reports that the system photographs patrons as they enter venues and questions about whether those images are used for facial recognition.
A broader privacy concern also deserves scrutiny. For years, PatronScan has marketed itself not just as an ID-verification tool, but as a system that allows bars and clubs to identify patrons, keep records about them, and share information across venues. As one news article published in 2019
documented
, PatronScan built a network that allowed participating bars to flag patrons and share information about them with other establishments.
And in California, it’s not at all clear how PatronScan’s business model of scanning IDs and sharing the information from those scans with other bars comports with the law. California’s
ID privacy law
, which was amended in 2018 to add ID “scans,” states that no businesses shall “retain or use” any information from a scanned ID card except for limited purposes such as to verify age, comply with a legal requirement, or prevent fraud.
A venue cannot claim to be a safe space while feeding its patrons’ data to a third party database.
Californians should be deeply concerned about businesses that collect information from government-issued IDs and use it to build databases about where people go, whom they associate with, and whether they should be allowed into other public gathering places. That concern is especially strong in LGBTQ+ spaces, which have long served as refuges for people to go
without
being tracked, monitored, or put on lists.
We reached out to Patronscan with questions regarding their practices and their views on California ID law. They referred us to their
published FAQ
question “Is Patronscan privacy compliant in California?” which claims that the use of Patronsca
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