Security Review: ID Scanners

After our discussion in class about skimmers, I thought about how they might be able to used to capture personal information that you may not want others to have. At many bars and liqour stores, they scan our IDs to make sure that we are of legal age. A malicious employee could easily use a skimmer and pretend it was an id scanner and capture all of the information that is stored on teh barcode of your ID. I know that several states offer the option to put your Social Security number on your IDs, which would make an easy target for identity theft. With thousands of customers coming in and out of bars and liqour stores (especially during football season), someone could collect a ton of personal data.

On the other hand, bars could use this information for 'good' by collecting information on visitors in order to market their bar towards the target customer. For example, if a bar realizes a lot of 21-one-year olds are attending the bar, they might look into having an 18+ night since 21-year-olds likely have many 20-year-old friends. The bars should though, make it voluntary to give this information, rather than just taking it without telling anyone.

There really isn't a way to stop these types of data theft, except by refusing to allow your ID to be swiped (which will most likely mean not getting into a bar or buying beer). Businesses should be responsible for ensuring employees are not misusing ID information. One way to do this would be to ensure at least 2 people are checking IDs or selling alcohol, so that 1 malicious employee couldn't take advantage of this skimming.