Why Are Gay Bars Building Databases of Their Patrons?

According to EFF Deeplinks, San Francisco's LGBTQ-plus bars are using PatronScan, a system that scans IDs and builds patron databases shared across venues. The privacy concern is significant: California law prohibits retaining or using scanned ID information except for age verification and fraud prevention, yet PatronScan retains detailed customer records—names, birth dates, photos, visit times—for up to five years on flagged patrons. The California Legislature investigated in twenty eighteen and found the company had collected data on more than half a million residents in Sacramento alone. Civil rights advocates warn these databases pose outsized risks to vulnerable communities, including immigrants who could face immigration consequences from being flagged at a bar. EFF argues that given the stakes, bars should reject the technology and return to traditional ID checks—a method that has protected venues for decades without building surveillance databases.

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