San Francisco gay bars face backlash over facial scans

Source Domain: www.advocate.com

The use of facial-scanning technology at several San Francisco gay bars has angered many in the LGBTQ+ community. At locations often frequented by people who are not publicly out, the notion of tracking patrons’ whereabouts in the very havens sought for privacy raises many alarms.

At least three gay bars in the Castro District have started using Patronscan Guard+, a technology intended to flag fake IDs, according to the San Francisco Gazetteer. But the experience of having a camera turned on every person entering the venues, often without warning, has left many outraged.

Hart Owen told the outlet that she considers the surveillance technology a serious risk to privacy. “It’s really not great to have lists of gay people,” they said.

Management at Mix, Badlands, and Toad Hall declined to speak to the Gazetteer about the issue, though bouncers pointed reporters to signage informing guests that the technology was being used.

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The Patronscan website offers insight into how the data can be used. The technology, according to the company, goes beyond simple document checks to validate identification and includes third-party checks. Those could flag people wanted by law enforcement or those appearing on sex offender registries. The company said it uses more than 8,500 forensic checks for every ID card scanned in bars, cross-referencing information to verify ages and names with listed addresses, “giving your front-of-house team real-time access to the patron intelligence they need.”

The site also addresses privacy concerns.

“We know this is one of the first questions operators ask, and we want to be clear: when a Third-Party Check runs, we use only the guest’s name and address to compare against publicly available information, such as confirming that an address exists and is valid,” the site reads. “No guest data is stored or sold as part of this feature.”

But the…

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