ID Tech May Mean an End to Anonymous Drinking 514
Anonymous Howard writes "If you visit a lot of bars and restaurants, you've likely crossed paths with driver's license scanners — machines that supposedly verify that your license is valid. In actuality, many of these scanners are designed to record your license information in addition to verifying them, and those that authenticate against a remote database are creating a record of when and where you buy alcohol. Not only that, but they're not even particularly effective — the bar code on your license uses an open, documented standard and can be rewritten to change your age or picture. Collecting our driver's license information is one thing, but collecting data about our personal drinking habits is not only a violation of, according to the ACLU representative quoted in the article, privacy and civil liberties, but this 'drinking record' could also create problems for people in civil and criminal lawsuits as proof of alcohol purchases in DUI cases or evidence of alcoholism in divorce lawsuits."
Frosty Piss, now checking for ID (Score:4, Funny)
t has to be said up front (Score:5, Funny)
That's why (Score:5, Funny)
They should make the database public (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And impact employment and insurance? (Score:5, Funny)
Which is silly, considering alcoholic drinks were first conceived by holy men...
That's all well and good... (Score:4, Funny)
God bless their little, slightly drunk, souls.
No need for police to ask if you drank tonight. (Score:5, Funny)
BEEP
"I see you had three martinis, two shots and bought a bloody mary for the dishwater blonde who dumped you to go to the park with the accountant."
You: "It tells you all that on my license?"
Officer: "No, I gave them a ticket for having sex in public while being ugly a few minutes ago. Now, step out of the car and put your hands behind your back."
In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Funny)
They usually give up after about 15 swipes.
I rewrote the magstripe on my license (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's why I only drink at seedy bars (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's why (Score:4, Funny)
Re:God dammit (Score:5, Funny)
"If I drank this much in America I would be an alcoholic, in Australia I'm a fucking legend"
"What do a fisherman in a boat and American beer have in common? They're both close to water"
So I'm almost completely off topic, but just wanting to point that out.
Re:God dammit (Score:5, Funny)
Re:God dammit (Score:3, Funny)
I guess that's true. I just had some visitors from Finland who got all excited about Sierra Nevada Ale, for example.
I wouldn't know because my taste runs more to jello body shots and speedballs. "Vive le difference", I say.
{Mrs Ratzo: just a joke, if you're reading this.)
Re:God dammit (Score:3, Funny)
Fosters? No one in Australia drinks Fosters. It's just cat's piss that we export to the rest of the world. I'm not sure if we even bother to make it fizzy first.