# They swipe your ID if you want to buy booze or medicine now **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 18, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520 "2007-01-18T22:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/81 "2024-12-17T01:40:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Your debit/credit card is far more likely to be the source of identity theft. Does my debit card have my DoB , address, etc on it? > [@Smapti](#): > > Liability. Scanning an ID allows us to prove in court that we checked, And what is your liability when you get hacked and all that info is stolen and used for theft? > [@slash2k](#): > > it’s the clerk who takes $20 to type in a false date and allows an underage buyer to purchase booze (or tobacco, or other age-restricted products). How does scanning stop fake or stolen IDs? > [@slash2k](#): > > There are other states where this is actually a law. In Utah, for example, most bars/restaurants that serve booze [must scan the ID](https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title32B/Chapter1/32B-1-S407.html) of customers who appear to be under 35; i Note that last bit-_who appear to be under 35_. Not who appear to be on Social Security. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/82 "2024-12-17T02:17:45Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And what is your liability when you get hacked and all that info is stolen and used for theft? I don’t lose my job if we get hacked and the company doesn’t lose its liquor license. Those things DO happen if we sell to an underage person. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Does my debit card have my DoB , address, etc on it? Got a Safeway rewards card? Guess what! The store has your address. > [@DrDeth](#): > > How does scanning stop fake or stolen IDs? Fake IDs don’t scan. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Note that last bit-_who appear to be under 35_. Not who appear to be on Social Security. What’s more reliable - a government issued ID, or an individual’s subjective opinion of how old you look? Because when I was 12 years old and 6 feet tall with facial hair I had people stopping me in front of stores asking me to register to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/83 "2024-12-17T02:19:13Z")
Well guess I’ll try this again as my first post was a cluster: Oh for cry eye. I thought dopers were above conspiracy theories. At least at my store/small corporation, _ **We do not retain personal info when an id is scanned** _ All the scanner does is display a record of a _valid_ id being scanned when an age restricted item is sold through that register. If you are afraid to let someone scan your state id/driver license then use your passport. It’s an extra step for us, but I wouldn’t want you stressing over that phone call or black helicopters. Seriously, it is a government issued id, so now you’re worried about the government who issued it to you … stalking you. Oh, and you bet they (corpoations) know everything you gave them _ **when you applied for that credit card probably on line!** _ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/84 "2024-12-17T02:27:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I don’t lose my job if we get hacked and the company doesn’t lose its liquor license. Right. The company doesnt care much if tens of thousands of customers are defrauded. They only care about themselves. > [@Smapti](#): > > Got a Safeway rewards card? Guess what! The store has your address. Not Date of Birth. > [@Sylvanz](#): > > At least at my store/small corporation: _ **We DO NOT save detailed info from your license when it is scanned** _ Says who? Companies lie all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/85 "2024-12-17T02:31:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The company doesnt care much if tens of thousands of customers are defrauded. They only care about themselves. Yeah, you’re right. I do care if I lose my job because I decided someone “looks old enough” and didn’t card them, and I do care if the store goes out of business because my coworkers did it one time too many and our license gets revoked I suppose it’s just supposed to be part of my duty as a class-conscious proletarian to take one for the team and become unemployed and homeless so as to save the public from the tyranny of having to take their ID out of their wallet. Honestly, if you’re that worried about hackers, perhaps you should just not even have an ID. Governments get hacked too, you know. > **[Millions of Americans’ personal DMV data exposed in massive MOVEit hack](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/millions-of-americans-personal-dmv-data-exposed-in-massive-moveit-hack/)** > > Over 6.5 million residents of Louisiana and Oregon affected, impact may potentially widen. > **[Data Breach at DMV Contractor Exposes Vehicle Registration Data of Millions...](https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/hotforsecurity/data-breach-at-dmv-contractor-exposes-vehicle-registration-data-of-millions-of-californians)** > > The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is investigating a data breach at an address verification company that may have compromised vehicle registration information of millions of Californians. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/86 "2024-12-17T02:45:36Z")
Then I suggest you don’t drink or smoke. It isn’t universal, but it’s moving in that direction. The consequences to us are just too high. I sell to a person who looks old enough, that person is 20 years and 8 months old, I lose my job, could lose the company their liquor license. If that 20+ year old gets in an accident and injures or kills someone I can be held criminally liable. The responsibility foisted on cashiers is huge, and often the expectaions ridiculous, but that doesn’t matter under the law. So any advantage I get with universal scanning is ok by me. Drinking and smoking are not rights they privileges. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/87 "2024-12-17T03:35:23Z")
I actually don’t care if kids get alcohol. Part of the problem as I see it (and a huge part of what made me a drunk) is the “forbidden fruit” aspect of it. You tell people no well into what the law considers adulthood and then one day there are no rules or restraints. Of course they’re going to go nuts, it’s been denied them their entire lives. I mean, you do you, and if everyone wants to tell me what a bad parent I am, have at it, but I told my son point blank that I’d get him whatever he wanted starting about halfway through high school on the condition that he doesn’t drive, I told him I’d pick him up from anywhere at any time, no questions asked. When he went to college I sent him with a few bottles every time he came home. He just graduated and he’s not anywhere near what I was at his age because I completely demistifyed it, I turned into nothing terribly special. If everyone did that, if we were permitted to do that without people getting all up in our grill about it and threatening us with jail time, that’s exactly what it would become, nothing terribly special. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/88 "2024-12-17T03:40:21Z")
That’s not entirely true. They don’t care about your personal habits and they won’t send CPS, but they DO track kegs so if they bust a party they can find out which awful, evil parent supplied the beer. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/89 "2024-12-17T03:41:48Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > They don’t care about your personal habits and they won’t send CPS, but they DO track kegs so if they bust a party they can find out which awful, evil parent supplied the beer. Which I’m sure they were fully capable of doing before scanning IDs became a thing. Don’t you usually have to put down a deposit on a keg? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/90 "2024-12-17T03:41:58Z")
I’d stay home, not shop, not tap my card anywhere, not order online, not order take out. Not use apps. (Oh, lord the computer screen is watching me. Eeek. The sky is falling.) If I were that worried. Like I said above(with help) Pandora has opened the box. We’re not gonna be able to push the information age back in. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/91 "2024-12-17T03:44:49Z")
A deposit is usually sufficient to replace the keg, so it obviates the necessity to sign your name to the purchase. The tying of kegs to the purchaser is entirely for the purposes of tracking down adults who buy kegs for their kids. ---
**Author:** ![Reallivedead-Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reallivedead-guy/32/18966_2.png) [@Reallivedead-Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reallivedead-Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/92 "2024-12-17T03:59:37Z")
Lol. . No, I am not that paranoid. . .I am just pointing out the possibilities. Remember when everyone thought thier cell phones were secure? And then we find out our shopping habits are being tracked, we can be tracked by GPS, we can be monitered via how we drive our cars, (for insurance companies? ) Need I go on? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/93 "2024-12-17T04:00:54Z")
> [@Reallivedead-Guy](#): > > Remember when everyone thought thier cell phones were secure? No. No, I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Reallivedead-Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reallivedead-guy/32/18966_2.png) [@Reallivedead-Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reallivedead-Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/94 "2024-12-17T04:01:19Z")
Not yet, anyway. . Are you going to guarentee that some enterprising young bureaucrat won’t find it an EXCELLENT idea and work to impliment it? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/95 "2024-12-17T04:04:13Z")
> [@Reallivedead-Guy](#): > > Are you going to guarentee that some enterprising young bureaucrat won’t find it an EXCELLENT idea and work to impliment it? Bureaucrats don’t write laws, and the police have better things to waste their time on than getting grocery stores to compile dossiers on their customers’ drinking habits so they can peruse them and pass moral judgment on you. Have you considered going off the grid and living in a shack in the woods? I hear the electric company can read the words you’re typing as the energy passes through their wires. Hell, the courts overturned the ban on home distilling - just make sure you pay for your still with Liberty dollars and you can make your own hooch, and John Law will be none the wiser! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/96 "2024-12-17T04:13:11Z")
And…as a good tip; plant your corn early! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reallivedead-Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reallivedead-guy/32/18966_2.png) [@Reallivedead-Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reallivedead-Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/97 "2024-12-17T04:26:43Z")
Let me be clear, I certainly want the laws with regards to the minimum age be followed. I don’t care that you manditorily need to check my ID, even though I am my stated age of 65. I am flattered infact when someone asks to see my id. . but the difference is that a 40 year old clerk asking to see my id, can reasonably assume that I am the stated age and NOT a prohibited purchaser. The problem is that you as a mere clerk, are likely not even aware of the possibility that the store, the retailer, or the state, may be collecting the other information in that subtle little click of the handy dandy laser wand and collecting all of the information on my license as well. Have you ever, (as a clerk) examined the code that runs your registers? Do you know factually that it does or does not collect such data. . Does it provide automatic Inventory? If it does it collects data already. Not that I would expect you to remotely care. Your answer reflects the triviality you assume towards your job and customers. Do you treat the customer that comes in once a week and spends $250 differently or do you laugh at them as well? Does the store owner know of your impropriety? No, I am not greatly troubled by the issue, but as I have notedly mentioned, I am only pointing out the possibility. For many retailers the temptation is just too great. Companies want data. . “who is buying what?” What is their address _-so we can send them a mailer_ . . .And then someone at state realizes they can accurately track ETOH consumption by the public. Are you going to personally guarentee that it will never happen or that you give a flip about protecting your customers privacy? I seriously doubt it. And rest assured, If any of your customers read your response, I am sure they will take their business elsewere so as to not “inconvenience” you. ---
**Author:** ![Reallivedead-Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reallivedead-guy/32/18966_2.png) [@Reallivedead-Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reallivedead-Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/98 "2024-12-17T04:34:04Z")
You are incorrect in your assumption that bureaucrats don’t write laws. . they do. And consider how helpful it was if an officer could take a bottle found at a scene and put it into a database that says Mr. Any person purchased this liquor one hour ago at Severs Quicker Liquor on Main. . .just a few minutes away. . .what a great bit of evidence! Whatever reason. . bureaucrats will find reasons to misuse data. Likely? Who knows. But as I have noted elsewhere. . who would have imagined that our smartphones would be tracking us? Or need Fourth Amendment protections? I am not saying the data will be used for anything save inventory, _but it may. ._ And hey wouldn’t that list of ETOH purchases be great for the soon to be Ex-wife in the divorce proceeding . . .Or for insisting you need to spend some time in rehab? Or the police establishing you have a “drinking problem?” Never say never, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/99 "2024-12-17T04:40:28Z")
Since phones got “smart” there has been no reason to think they were secure. I don’t think I’ve ever thought my online activity was private. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520/100 "2024-12-17T04:44:40Z")
Obviously pay cash and never “swipe” any personal documents anywhere… but don’t forget about the ubiquitous security cameras, in businesses and on the street, tied in to face- and gait- recognition systems, plus I hope you do not walk around town with carrying a mobile phone or other networked electronic device. You are right to be paranoid, but if we want to think of possible solutions we also, speaking of federal legislation, need to implement more ironclad GDPR regulation that will be enforced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-swipe-your-id-if-you-want-to-buy-booze-or-medicine-now/388520.md?page=6)