Alberta privacy commission to rule on bar scans

Alberta's privacy commissioner will rule in February whether bars in the province can continue to scan ID cards and compile personal information from customers as part of their efforts to keep out troublemakers.

The commission held an inquiry into the matter in January 2007, and the ruling is just in the final stages of completion, said Wayne Wood, a spokesman for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The ruling will set a standard for all bars and nightclubs in the province that collect personal information from their patrons, Wood told CBC News on Monday.

Nyall Engfield filed a complaint with the privacy commission in the spring of 2005 after his ID card was scanned when he entered a nightclub in Calgary.

"I became alarmed," Engfield told CBC News. "There is a lot of sensitive information on your driver's licence that you don't want people to know, especially businesses. There is [our] signature, our picture, our last names, height and weight, those kinds of things."

Dozens of bars in Edmonton and Calgary are members of BarLink, SecureClub and other computer systems that they use to compile a list of who is entering their clubs, sharing it with other owners on the same system.

'There is a lot of sensitive information on your driver's licence that you don't want people to know.' Nyall Engfield

The bar owners maintain they don't use the information for anything except ensuring their clubs are safe.

"If someone does cause a problem and we find that is something they should banned for, we mark them in the system," said bar owner Gary Clark. "And if they try to come back in the future, even a year from now, we will be aware of it."

British Columbia's privacy commission is also studying the legality of such systems, with a decision expected sometime in February.