Why do liquor stores scan your license

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Click to scroll back to top of the page Back to top. By Emily Mertz Global News. Posted January 22, pm. Updated January 23, am. Smaller font Descrease article font size - A. Share this item on Facebook facebook Share this item via WhatsApp whatsapp Share this item on Twitter twitter Send this page to someone via email email Share this item on Pinterest pinterest Share this item on LinkedIn linkedin Share this item on Reddit reddit Copy article link Copy link.

Story continues below advertisement. Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Assertions by the companies that the identification scanning system used in liquor stores complies with privacy laws in Alberta are misleading. Some advantages of installing an ID verification scanner are as follows: Time: Manual ID verification is an error-prone and time-consuming process. It might take a store clerk as long as a few minutes to determine the authenticity of an ID card.

This delay will inevitably result in a long queue at the liquor store, which might negatively affect the level of customer satisfaction.

It might even diminish a store's ability to retain customers. Accuracy: The accuracy of the age verification technique applied by an alcohol retail outlet can make or break a liquor business. A minor error in effectively verifying the age of a minor customer can result in massive losses from lawsuits and even the closure of the business.

Manual age verification is not just slow, it is very prone to error. It is hard to differentiate an authentic ID card from a fake one, particularly if the latter is well made. Store clerks and managers can sometimes make a mistake when trying to verify the authenticity of a card, particularly when there's a long queue waiting and they're in a rush.

Cost: Buying a desktop or hand-held ID verification scanner is also far more cost-effective than employing people to manually verify ID cards. This is because most ID scanners are reasonably affordable. They also require little by way of maintenance. Scanners are now used at seven stores in Edmonton and two in Calgary. The company has reduced the time it holds data from 90 to 21 days, Mann said. Mann said the company is happy the investigation is over and acknowledges a privacy assessment should have been done.

When the project was launched in January , Alcanna's CEO James Burns said that Patronscan had been working "with privacy offices in Alberta, Canada, across North America, to make sure this is all privacy compliant with both laws and norms of society. But the report by the privacy commissioner's office says that isn't true. Commissioner Jill Clayton said her office wasn't aware of the project until it was announced at the news conference.

Patronscan was relying on a privacy impact assessment from The company's chief executive officer told CBC News in January that the company didn't reach out to the privacy commissioner because the pilot project used the same technology that had been in bars for more than a decade.

But Clayton suggested the use of identification scanners at a bar and use at a retail liquor store are not the same.