ID Tech May Mean an End to Anonymous Drinking

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Due to mounting pressure, purchases of all Frosty Piss, including steaming mug varieties, are now subject to mandatory ID recording. Our apologies for the inconvenience and we hope you enjoy your beverage.
 

t has to be said up front

[pilgrim23]

Let me be the firth to shay that I welcome our (Hic!).... waitaminute...what was I shaying?

That's why

[dreamchaser]

That's why I just keep a still running and do all of my drinking alone in the dark. I even use a tin cup to match my hat.

They should make the database public

[elrous0]

My fraternity brothers are all married and I STILL NEED DRINKING BUDDIES!!!

Re:And impact employment and insurance?

[Pojut]

Companies owned by fundamentalist christians, mormans or even muslims may decide to do this.

Which is silly, considering alcoholic drinks were first conceived by holy men...

That's all well and good...

[carpe_noctem]

...but it won't stop me from taking 20$ from the kids standing behind the liquor store to buy them a case of PBR.

God bless their little, slightly drunk, souls.

No need for police to ask if you drank tonight.

[xC0000005]

Officer:"License and registration, please."
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

[EllisDees]

Err, no, in Ohio actually. Around here there are a few bars that have taken to scanning the magnetic strip in our drivers license. Lucky for me, I have a few of those super strong neodymium magnets and have completely negated said magnetic strip.

They usually give up after about 15 swipes.

I rewrote the magstripe on my license

[imuffin]

After a liquor store scanned my license without even asking my permission, I got ahold of a magstripe writer and deleted the data on my license's magstripe and wrote over it with my credit card. Now when I go out I can use the same card to get past the bouncer and pay the tab. Sometimes they look at me funny when I present my license for payment, but when they run the card the transaction is always approved.

Re:That's why I only drink at seedy bars

[rodney dill]

I only drink when I'm alone or with somebody.

Re:That's why

[Flarg!]

Waiting? Who said anything about waiting? We drain those cans the old-fashioned way, the way my grandaddy did before he went blind and died of liver failure!

Re:God dammit

[Architect_sasyr]

You mention having two drinks and driving home up there, and people I talk to get their panties all in a wad

There's a fairly standard joke out here in Australia about you Americans and your drink (actually there is heaps of them) let me relate two:

"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

[PitaBred]

I've always heard it as "What does having sex in a canoe have in common with Bud Light? They're both fucking close to water"

Re:God dammit

[PopeRatzo]

but we also have plenty of great beers too

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

[biovoid]

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.