San Francisco panel: places of public assembly should have to photograph patrons

by Walter Olson on April 19, 2011

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. … Events with strong cultural, ideological, and political components are frequently held at venues that would be affected by these rules.” [EFF]

Tagged as: , ,

{ 5 comments }

1 Mark Biggar 04.19.11 at 9:55 am

Are Churches and other religious meeting exempt. If not, I see a first amendment problem.

2 CTrees 04.19.11 at 1:26 pm

Scan their IDs?

That just seems so… bah, I can’t avoid this, “papers, please.”

3 mojo 04.19.11 at 4:21 pm

More like “dos-vee-dan-ya, sta-rets!”

4 wfjag 04.20.11 at 7:53 am

You don’t have to show a pictured ID to vote, but do have to have your picture taken to see a concert? Let’s keep our priorities straight.

5 J.T. Wenting 04.21.11 at 11:45 am

“Are Churches and other religious meeting exempt.”

Of course not. It’s all “for security” and “to prevent terrorism”.
And of course we all know that all terrorists are radical rightwing Christians, so churches need to be monitored especially carefully!

Comments on this entry are closed.