On the local Portland Or. news station tonight (verifiable)

A new device to scan the bar code on the back of ones drivers license will immediately tell the store owner vital, relevant information about the customer.

The seg was about the local inventor of a scanner being used in 130 locations (mostly stores that sell alcohol or cigarettes, and some State Liquor stores ) to verify the age of someone purchasing alcohol. It will immediately reveal the true identity and age of the person ""ASSIGNED!!!"" to said bar-code.

"The faces have been changed to attend the adolescents need for illegal contraband, but the bar-codes remain the same" Poor kids just don't stand much of a chance to get away with it much longer. Tee Hee.

Sounds too close for comfort. Like, real life changes in BigBro tactics. BTW, the State Liquor Commission likes the system Soooo much, it is preparing to make additional purchases of the device, and the inventor 'has' a working prototype of a handheld model that will provide mobility and flexibility of the technology... Scary stuff!

Prepared to obey God's commands?

Respectfully

Michael

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 08, 1999

Answers

I'm not sure what this scanner accesses. A bar code only contains a number, not some sinister information. Are they implying that the liquor store scanner is linked to the states DMV database? If they are giving merchants access, I would think that the ACLU will be all over it in court.

-- VNN (none@none.comm), December 08, 1999.

My guess would be that the barcode just carries, in machine- readable format, the same information printed in human-readable format on the front of the licence. Name, date of birth, licence number, that sort of thing (in fact maybe not even that much: more likely just the licence number). The scanner wouldn't reveal any more than could be learnt by just reading the licence. Again I guess that the purpose of putting the scanners in tobacco/alcohol shops would be to log the fact that a driving licence was produced before a sale: possibly providing a means for the shop owner to prove he's checking IDs before selling to someone who might look too young.

-- Rob (rob@planet.rob), December 08, 1999.

Any journey, must begin with a first few steps. The die is cast and the roadmap is in hand. The trip is inevitable IMHO. How we get there, is only a matter of choices.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 08, 1999.

One of the places I worked I actually ran my Drivers license through the Omron credit card reader. It came up with the numerical data on the front of the card, nothing more. Surprised but not shocked.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 08, 1999.

...then why don't they just hire cashiers that can READ! Sheesh!

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 08, 1999.

I agree that a barcode wouldn't worry me, but here in Florida, the new licenses have a magnetic stip, which could contain considerably more information. Thank God for large magnets......

-- Bob (bob@bob.bob), December 08, 1999.

NO, No, no.....

Your looking ONLY at the surface - the fact is, ANYBODY can read immediately a license (photo id) and tell if the person is old enough....scanning the license - to read the info in the bar/magnetic code is meaningless, and gives no extra security to the "state" to tell whether somebosy id underage. They could argue that clerks can't subtract dates anymore and so allow underage purchases - but every store has a little card with the critical date already on listed: "Unybosy born after (date) is not allowed to buy liquor....after (date) is not allowed to by cigarettes.)

Further, the fact that the scanner reads the date - AND APPROVES THE PURCHASE (rather the clerk reading the date (and the photo) to approve the purchase, only means the clerk has LESS reason to look closely at the photo id.

SO THAT EXCUSE WON'T FLY. There is no valid reason to scan licenses .... except to lose your privacy.

Now, note the exception: the license reader CAN and DOES tell the state who got scanned, where, and what was on the register receipt.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 08, 1999.

A good reason to scrape off the magnetic strip on the back of the license...one never knows what is on that strip, and I doubt that it is something that I would want to be there in any case.

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), December 08, 1999.

Ok...So what if the scanner is online in realtime? Who's watching? Why? Does a profile emerge? What will be done with it? Will the next store read it while it is still in my pocket (magnetic)? Would a portable device be used at gatherings? Soooo many posiblilities. so much for personl privacy!

Will you accept an invisible barcode tattoo? Why? Why not?

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 08, 1999.