Buisnesses collecting info from your DL

[acemcmac]

I understand the need to verify age with the DL, but would someone please explain to me what right buisnesses have to seize my DL and record my numbers or run it through scanners? I refuse to partronize any place that does this and I find this to be a gross invasion of privacy.... nowhere is there a posted privacy agreement, nowhere did I sign any waivers.... I just get my DL seized and scanned..... anyone know anything about this

example.... other night at a conveinience store (wawa, I've been meaning to call corperate about this), clerk demanded I take my DL out of the window and started frantically recording info when I was trying to buy my GF some cigs... when I demanded to know what was being done with my info, she said she was "verifying it." Against what servers I asked? Who's records does she have access to? Rather than answering some simple questions, she just speeched me about how she has to card everyone, and when I complained that I found her answer inadequate, she shot a glance to the 4 cops at the coffee machine to interveine.... was any of this necessary.... whiskey

 

[DougK62]

They ran it through a scanner? That's weird stuff. Sometimes their machine requires them to type in a birth date, and I'd be OK with that. Anything more would upset me.

 

[Pepsi90919]

at the fort erie race track & slots they card 80% of the people that come through. they run your ontario driver's licence through a scanner and the information appears on the screen instantaneously. i believe it's contained on the strip.

 

[Orsorum]

I would have asked for my ID back immediately, if anyone from a business starts writing down any of my information for such a purchase I would ask for their manager and an address for corporate. Now, I have taken down info off a DL a few times (when I was making a tax-exempt sale and we needed the DL# for tax purposes), but never any more information than that unless it was an application for a loan or an instrument rental or something.

 

[acemcmac]

I had a very serious problem with one of your employees at 1am on the morning of Wednesday, Feb 9. As I went to purchase cigarettes at the Wawa located on <location removed>, the clerk demanded that I remove my driver?s license from my wallet. When I asked why, she explained that she needed to record information from my license to ?verify? that it was authentic. To this request, I raised several very serious privacy concerns. What database is she comparing my license to? Do Wawa clerks have the freedom to simply look up any license information? What information is made available to the clerk? What information is being stored? Am I being tracked? What parties is Wawa sharing my information with? Where can I read a copy of Wawa?s privacy statement?

To each of these questions, I was only given a very tedious, annoyed and insulting speech about the necessity of requesting proper identification prior to the sale of cigarettes. I have no problem with this. I do, however, have a very serious problem with Wawa collecting my personal information and then refusing to tell me what they are doing with it.

The clerk went even further to protest ?well, what are you going to do when you go to bars?? As if it was any of her business. I was greatly offended by the clerk?s treatment of me. How I would handle this type of situation at another business is none of her concern, although it would only be fair to point out that I would expect nothing less of them either than full responses to my queries.

If you please, I would like a copy of your privacy agreement and a full explanation of what transpired that night with regards to the ?authentication? of my driver?s license number, what parties my personal information was shared with, and how that information will be used in the future. The fact that this information was not available to me at the time of the transaction I find particularly appalling and will withhold further business until a proper explanation is given to me.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration,
Long time Wawa customer
<name removed>

I just sent that to their online customer relations form.... let's see where this goes. I heard that this company has a rep for handing out coupons for free stuff to disgruntled customers... let's see how this goes

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Orsorum
I would have asked for my ID back immediately.

unfortunatley, it was 1:00am, I was cranky, and I knew if I went back to my car and had to explain to the GF that I didn't buy her cigarette's she would have given me a speech about how petty I am... we'd have probably broken up that night.

She turned out to be surprisingly understanding though.... her only words were "I'm glad you think like that"

 

[3point14]

I was at a bar last week and one of the Marlboro girls came by to take a survey. I don't smoke, so I said no. The girl I was with said okay since she knew the Marlboro girl. The Marlboro girl got my friend's DL and scanned it in a machine. I asked why she was doing that, and the girl responded "To confirm her age." That sorta sh!t scares me

 

[acemcmac]

anyone know where i can find a magnetic source powerful enough to frag the strip?

 

[TallBill]

They are going to clone you.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: acemcmac
anyone know where i can find a magnetic source powerful enough to frag the strip?

try those things that remove security tags? They mess up CCs pretty good.

 

[acemcmac]

mmm... even bettter.... what if I could edit that info

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Some companies require a scan because they do not trust their employees to be competent. Making a fake DL is incredibly simple until it comes down to the data matrix and the magnetic strip encoding.

 

[Orsorum]

Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Orsorum
Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

I'm sure they have one, and I'm sure they'll send me one, but the fact that they couldn't spit out answers on demand just blew my mind....

for all I know that clerk could have been shown a quick bio of me....

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Orsorum
Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

Everything that's on your DL is public information. I don't see what the problem is.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Orsorum
Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

I'm sure they have one, and I'm sure they'll send me one, but the fact that they couldn't spit out answers on demand just blew my mind....

for all I know that clerk could have been shown a quick bio of me....

So what? What harm is done in collecting data? As long as they're not trying to control aspects of your life, why can't they collect all the data they want? How do you think marketing works?

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Orsorum
Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

I'm sure they have one, and I'm sure they'll send me one, but the fact that they couldn't spit out answers on demand just blew my mind....

for all I know that clerk could have been shown a quick bio of me....

So what? What harm is done in collecting data? As long as they're not trying to control aspects of your life, why can't they collect all the data they want? How do you think marketing works?

I should be free to not advertise my personal information. My goal is that if all of the data ever collected about me were centralized in one place, there would be absolutley no pattern. The government does not need to know that I once bought a particular brand of cigarette. I like to call myself a non-smoker and I don't want that thrown back on me...

think about it.... its a public company... in a decade, what's to stop Homeland Security from demanding that they have integrated access to stuff like that..... they'll know how fast mohommad atta goes through a pack and based on his trail of atm recipts, anticipate where he'll buy more smokes

gimme my tin foil hat!~

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Orsorum
Nik: Even so, I find it surprising that the company does not have a written privacy policy.

I'm sure they have one, and I'm sure they'll send me one, but the fact that they couldn't spit out answers on demand just blew my mind....

for all I know that clerk could have been shown a quick bio of me....

So what? What harm is done in collecting data? As long as they're not trying to control aspects of your life, why can't they collect all the data they want? How do you think marketing works?

I should be free to not advertise my personal information. My goal is that if all of the data ever collected about me were centralized in one place, there would be absolutley no pattern. The government does not need to know that I once bought a particular brand of cigarette. I like to call myself a non-smoker and I don't want that thrown back on me...

think about it.... its a public company... in a decade, what's to stop Homeland Security from demanding that they have integrated access to stuff like that..... they'll know how fast mohommad atta goes through a pack and based on his trail of atm recipts, anticipate where he'll buy more smokes

gimme my tin foil hat!~

You're obsessing about something that doesn't really change your life, but you're acting as if it does. Is the government getting this information? If the gas attendant swipes your DL through the machine when you buy a tank of gas, what makes you think that Uncle Sam is standing right there behind the gas pump, hiding, writing everything down, letting out an evil laugh because he knows that he can ruin your life with that information?

...It doesn't work that way. The gub'ment probably doesn't even get that information.

There are lots of situations where companies gain invaluable marketing information by knowing who bought what, where they bought it, when they bought it, and so on, that will help them better their business with things like how they market their own products and how the market their reseller products. It just goes on and on. Basically, if you want to buy something from somewhere and they want you give them your DL so they can collect marketing information or whatever, you basically have two choices: say no, or say yes. Either way, you're still getting the product you want to buy.

It's the point at which something in my life becomes marginally more difficult that I draw the line. If a company catagorically requires me to provide my DL in order for me to purchase something from them, and they require it every time I walk in, I'm probably not going to shop there unless there's a huge benefit to doing so.

Take Costco for instance. In order to sign up, you have to have a DL and you have to provide it when you get a card. In order to shop at Costco, you have to provide your membership card to get in the door. Then you have to provide your membership card to the cashier in order to check out. Then, as you're walking out, people check your receipt against the products actually sitting in the cart to make sure you're not walking out with crap you didn't buy.

That's a significantly larger hastle than just letting someone swipe your DL when you're buying beer or something, yet millions of people do it every year because they know that the positives about buying at Costco out weight the negatives (cost versus quantity and quality).

 

[CRXican]

some people are way too parinoid

There should be no reason for them to write anything down but scanning a DL is perfectly normal to make sure it's real

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

They're certainly within their rights to demand an ID. While I find it extremely strange that they recorded your info, there's nothing on your license that's particularly private.

Every now and then convienence stores get caught selling tobacco to minors, and then institute policies similar to this for awhile on anyone who doesn't have gray hair or WWII dogtags... I'd just let it go.