Clubbing in Fortress Amerika (fwd)

[David Honig]

>on Sat, Oct 20, 2001 at 12:56:02PM -0700, Giovanna Imbesi
(pho at tuttomedia.com) wrote:
>> Last night my friend and I stopped at a Venice club/bar.  At the door
>> they were doing the normal ID check, but then took my driver's license
>> and swiped it into a little Palm-like device...and all the info popped
>> up on the screen.  

Venice Italy or Calif (etc.)?  Never mind -I saw the 310, so I'll
ignore your Italian name.  Amerika.

You mean the magstripe on your license still carries information? 
Give that man a magnet.

Do different states use different formats for the data on the magstrip?


>>Is this even legal? 

You chose to give them your bits.  They could ask for a thumbprint
too, or AIDS test result, or DNA sample.  Big deal.  If you don't 
want to play their game, go away.  Having signed no contract to 
keep that info private or unexploited, expect some junk mail.

Having a copy of someone's info is not fraudulent behavior.  There's
lots of clubs that don't probe your orifices so much.  

Aren't they
>> authorized to check date-of-birth but no more?  

They aren't authorized to do anything.  They have to make sure they don't
sell ethanol to those the govt deems unfit or the govt shuts them down with
force.   How they verify this is up to them, as is the risk.