There are a growing number of calls for the Australian Privacy Commissioner to take action over identity scanners in pubs and clubs.It certainly seems like there's a better way to do what the business establishments want to do with less identity theft risk.
Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim says his office is receiving an increasing number of complaints about the use of scanners in licensed venues, and that their use is boosting the risk of identity crime.
But the Australian Privacy Foundation says the commissioner is doing little to tackle the problem.
Storing all of the information on an ID card is overkill. Using facial recognition, an adequately rigorous system storing just a name and a face — information insufficient for identity theft — could be implemented, though it would be slightly more expensive, and entail a bit more police work on the back end (in the event that the record was needed for law enforcement purposes). A name and a face, however, are pretty good jumping-off points for police, especially if facial recognition tools are available to be applied to government ID databases.
If the perceived risk of nightclub ID scans comes from identity thieves, facial recognition biometrics can lower that risk.
