Retailers Scanning Driver's Licenses

[Sinapi]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here has had an experience with cashiers wanting to scan your driver's license.

Today my mom came in frustrated and angry because when she tried to return an article of clothing, the cashier scanned her license into the register. She was unsurprisingly angry about this, as the barcode on your driver's license contains all your personal information. The cashier said that it was company policy; they state the policy on the back of the receipt (in tiny gray font) and it is apparently etched into the counter by the register. She said that she only got the cashier to cancel the scan (canceling the return in the process) after complaining for a long time. This store was The Limited, so I'm not surprised about their Orwellian policy, seeing that the company supports Israel.

She was then on the phone with one of her friends, ranting about how illegal this is and how she wants to sue the company. Her friend told her an similar story. She was out shopping at Target, and the cashier wanted to see her ID. So, she took it out to show him, and then he just snatched it out of her hand and swiped it into the register. She was also understandably upset, but she didn't make a big fuss out of it like my mom did and left the store.

So, I just did a quick search of this and found this article : ___http://consumerist.com/5272415/why-is-this-store-scanning-my-drivers-license. It pointed to a company called The Retail Equation, which stores your data from retailers into some database in Irvine, California. Here's their privacy policy: ___http://www.theretailequation.com/privacy/.

And here's the part I thought was most relevant:

Collection and Use of Information

TRE collects identifying and return transaction information from retailers and uses that information to make recommendations about returns and to prevent fraud and abuse. When a consumer returns merchandise, he or she furnishes identifying information by presenting a government-issued form of identification, such as a driver’s license, to the retailer. The retailer forwards to TRE the identifying information along with data for the return, and TRE adds the identifying and return transaction information to the return history for the consumer. TRE then reviews the consumer’s return history and, based on the retailer’s criteria, makes a recommendation about the return.

They claim not to sell your information to other companies, but what I get from the part above is that they help the company spy on you in order to meet your preferences to sell you more stuff. Who knows what they'd do with it; I wouldn't be surprised if they sold it to other corporations or government agencies. They say that it's just to prevent return fraud, but it's absolutely none of their business to have all of your personal data. Maybe if you return too much stuff, and if you work against the government, they'll try to arrest you for return fraud or something like that.

So, is this kind of thing illegal or not? All this spying and surveillance crap has been more evident since the Patriot Act was implemented, but I have no idea if that applies to corporations. I'd like to know if they pull this stuff outside of America. Any thoughts? Am I completely missing the point of something? I admit that my searching skills aren't top-notch, so I haven't really found anything about driver's license scanning on SOTT.net. If there's an article about this, or if there's already a thread about this, I'd be grateful for the direction. Thanks!

 

[Beau]

I would just make up a story that you left your DL at home or in your car. Unless you are paying with a credit card, their is no other reason to require one to have a DL on your person while shopping.

 

[Sinapi]

I would just make up a story that you left your DL at home or in your car. Unless you are paying with a credit card, their is no other reason to require one to have a DL on your person while shopping.

That's just it though; as far as The Limited goes, they will not accept any returns without any government-issued ID. They'll keep telling you that it's company policy like automatons. I do not know if this applies to other stores, though. My mom's friend was only making a small purchase in cash, so I have no idea why they would need to swipe your license other than to keep tabs on you. I'll be more aware of this the next time I absolutely need to buy something. Have you never encountered this before?

 

[Sinapi]

Well, after a while of talking on the phone and visiting a police station, it turns out that retailers who scan the information do not have access to all information in the license; usually just the name, date of birth, and the license number at the most is available to them, while the information for the police and the DMV is encrypted without a special scanner. It's also perfectly legal, according to the police, and doesn't count as identity theft or anything like that. When my mom's friend went to buy something, it turns out that that something was nicotine gum; as far as I understand it, the register needs the date of birth from the actual license in order to prove that the transaction is legitimate, or else the store would have lost its license to sell nicotine products.

So, perhaps my fears were unfounded. The above information still doesn't prove that they won't try to keep tabs on you, and perhaps the companies lie to you and withhold this information from you. I wonder if the same encryption policy would hold for those biometric ID's I've been hearing about.

I guess all I want to know at this point is: Are my fears really unfounded, and I'm just being paranoid? Should I have waited to post this topic until I had learned all the details of my mom's story, and until I had learned about the card encryption? Does all of this contribute to noise on the forum? I sincerely apologize if I have just spread noise. I also shouldn't be so hasty to post. Thank you very much. :)

 

[henry]

Hi zlyja,

Asking sincere questions, and then working to find answers is never noise. In this case, and in the times we live in, it is quite justified, at least it seems that way to me, to have questions when ID is requested in situations like this. You raised it here, and you did legwork yourself to find out the answer, at least the official answer ;), so that contributes to everyone's knowledge.

Gien the ever finer degree of control they are trying to exert over us, raising questions in these circumstances is a good thing. :)