Ron Gilbert (GrumpyGamer)If I walk into a bar and order a drink I expect them to ask for ID to prove my age. If I walk into a McDonalds and buy a Big Mac I would not expect them to ask for ID to check my age and if they did I would not expect them to photocopy it and give it to Fred to keep in his poorly locked file cabinet.
Cogito ergo mecagoendios@grumpygamer Part of what entitles the bar to ID is that there is a very standard and "checks and balances" definition of alcoholic beverage published by the government and not, you know, whatever advertisers and visa and mastercard are currently feeling deserving of a threat to shut down the bar's complete access to the most basic payment services, based entirely on the vibes of whomever is currently writing the most complaint emails to them (usually a fundamentalist religious nutjob).
acb@elrohir @cstross @grumpygamer Also, when you go to a bar, Google/Experian/Oracle don’t get a database row saying that Joe Bloggs, ID number hash ——, has a preference for mid-strength amber ales and salt & vinegar crisps or whatever, to correlate with their existing data about your phone usage, credit card purchases, financial status, political views and sexual proclivities
Ian Turton@elrohir @cstross @grumpygamer @acb at least some of the places I used to buy beer in Pennsylvania used to swipe my driver's licence to correlate it with my purchase