While I am far too old to be attending night clubs now, I have many nieces and nephews who have mentioned to me that one of Canberra’s larger night clubs (ICBM) is requiring patrons to be fingerprinted and have their driver’s licences and faces scanned before entry. A quick review of the Privacy Act shows that this club would appear to be operating contrary to that Act.
Unless I fell off the planet for a while, I do not think that we as a Canberra community have had the opportunity to discuss the use of such technology in this way.
I understand that information collected is stored on a database which can lead to patrons being put on a “banned persons’ database” at the whim and fancy of door staff.
I accept that violence in Civic is a problem; but breaking privacy rules is an inappropriate resolution. Two options for clubs in managing behaviour might be to be a tad more responsible in serving alcohol to intoxicated patrons and to reduce hours of operation.
Oh, and my nieces and nephews and a majority of patrons attending night clubs are good and well behaved citizens. The abuse of privacy legislation for a small minority is certainly overkill, if not illegal.
Anne Cahill-Lambert CLA member
Sunday Times 18 Jan 09
See also CLA’s request to the Privacy Commissioner for an own motion investigation