Same thing happened to me when I went to buy a M rated video game.

Scanning it also allows them to check the ID against an actual state database, to make sure that it's legit, rather than a very good fake.

a few bars i have been to does this.

Well, I now know where NOT to buy my alcoholic beverages.

In Texas the card reader is part of TABC regulations. No subterfuge on Target's part.

This allows them to verify the validity of the license as mentioned above.

I worked at target for about 9 months, and every now and again we had to this. But we only had to this when the COMPUTER prompted us to. Chances are that cashier was on some sort of power trip. As to knowing where you live...yeah they never told us anything like that. So I'm betting this is on cashier who is just on a power trip. The fun part was scanning out of state cards! Wheee!
@statnut: Policy at Target is to card anyone who looks under 40.

Ran into this a couple months ago. Kid at a convenience store performed a hit and run on me. The store had scanned his drivers license. When the deputy asked about the scanned info they reported that the system only captures the birthdate and time of scan. No other identifiable data captured.

Please show any proof that Target is actually recording any information from your license. What's with all the excessive hyperbole around here lately? Parents and disabled children are going to starve because a cop told them to leave IHOP? Target is creating a database of all the information on your DL because they validate it against a DMV database? Lighten up, people.

If you want to be mad because Target is validing DLs, then go right ahead. But these poster's (and Consumerist in general) really need to quit it with the excessive exaggerations. Uh oh, I think I broke the comment code by speaking my mind. I guess I'll get booted now.

@JustThatGuy3: Ditto with asking them to remove it from their wallet. How do I know if it's a real license or a great color copy on card stock?

In WA State if you do not physically handle the license, you did not check the ID. Do this in front of a state liquor auditor and you just got yourself, and your company, a nice fine.

Full disclosure: I work in the retail wine industry, although not for Target.

The likelihood is that they are verifying that the information on the front of the license is the same as the information on the barcode on the back -- there's plenty of fake DL's out there that look real enough, and it's possible to forge an earlier birthdate on a real license. However, I'm not aware of a fake DL yet that includes the barcoded information that a real DL has (both 1-d and 2-d barcode, and magstripe, at least in my state).

The problem here is not with the consumer, and it's not with Target, it's with enforcement. It's rare-to-nonexistent to hear of someone being arrested for buying alcohol underage. However, selling alcohol to someone underage is (in my state) a misdemeanor punishable by (IIRC) up to $5,000 in fines/court costs and up to 90 days in jail. Additionally, retailers who sell to minors can lose their liquor license (something that's very expensive to get -- depending on the state, they can be as valuable as $500,000, depending on how easy or hard it is to get a new one. Yes, there is a market for liquor licenses for sale in some states, as stores/restaurants close down and new ones open, they just transfer the license.).

@madrigal: A bunch of bars/lounges in nyc do this all the time

considering how a driver's license is only a permit to drive and in many states and provinces can be obtained without the need of a foundation document, using a driver's license as identification is only about as useful as the paper it's written on.

Regardless, Target needs to identify its privacy policy before scanning these cards or they could be violating some serious laws. I assume that by handing over your card you're giving concent, but it's easy to argue one has no idea they're about to scan in your personal details (rather than scrutinize your photo, check the birthdate carefully, etc.). Unless Target is scanning to verify that the license is legit - and records nothing - they're running a fine line here.

A few places I have been to are using them to verify the license is not a fake/age verification.

Admittedly, "all" could mean "all the info we need that everyone else collects too, like Lic # and DOB. Not address and other crap." To save them time from typing it in.

Or it could mean "we take it all and send the information to Nigeria." But we don't know.

@thesabre: It doesn't save the information, it only serves as a back-up/CYA to make sure that the cashier DID check the ID and that it IS a legit license.

I suppose one could sticker-over the bar code to prevent a unexpected quick-scan. You could peel off the sticker if you wanted to allow the scan. I wonder how much information is actually included in the barcode?

Agree with everyone as to why they scan it. It shows and proves they checked the ID. Once that is done, the "fault" lies with the person who passed the fake ID, not the person who took it. As to why they made you remove the card, it goes back to the police. Back in the day, people would take a licensee, and put stuff under the plastic but in front of the license, so it would change information, and look "good" from the outside, but if you looked at it w/o the plastic, alterations were obvious. Some people would put a picture under the plastic, so it looked like a license, and it wasn't. Also, there were cases where people would hand over their wallet, then claim money was taken. When I was a cashier, I ALWAYS made people take their license out if I needed to handle it.

@statnut: That...and once again the computer actually says "Does this person look under 40" or something like, "Was this person born before such and such date." Really...Target cashiers are just the middleman between the consumer and the computer system. Expect to see Target's new "Robot Cashiers" to be rolled out across the country later this year, designed by Oprah!

Yep as corkdork mentioned this is common place when a business wants to weed out fake IDs by making sure the data on the magnetic strip is valid and/or matches with the information printed on the ID.

LOL. I guess Target can tell you the name, address, height, weight, and eye color of everyone who has ever bought wine.

Just don't try to make a return without a receipt because then they play the 'we don't have your data' game.

7/11 did this to me when I bought a beer there a few weeks ago.

Maybe the problem isn't so much with Target scanning the license as it is with them refusing to answer any questions about it or letting us know how they are using the information.

@thesabre: Please show proof that they're not recording it. You have to admit that the possibility is there.

Scanning the back of the drivers license is new to me. I knew the bar code on the back had info but I have never see anyone utilize it before.

I too would have be freaked out by the request. I guess I would have said "keep the wine" and headed elsewhere. Is Target really the place that underage drinkers go to get booze? I guessing not. I always headed to the rundown c-store and found a clerk who didn't care to card. Too much activity at Target.

@JustThatGuy3:

I doubt a state would give Target or any corporation access to their DMV databases. There's too much of a privacy concern.

I've seen Target scan driver's licenses before for checks, but not alcohol. Maybe the cashier didn't know what he/she was talking about and assumed they were the same system.

The only application I could see for taking all the information would be for a record log to serve as an underaged selling defense.. Some states like Nebraska allows retailers to keep and record the ID information in a book and have the purchaser sign it affirming they are the person and the age listed. That way if that individual was not who they said they were and is caught for underaged purchasing, then that book is a defense against selling to a minor.

However from the details given, assuming they are true, this did not happen. I think the consumer needs to find what was collected and what for from a more reliable source than the cashier.

I"ve bought wine at Target and the cashier never asked for my ID.

I'm not comfortable with Target scanning an ID and keeping all of that information. Next thing you know, there will be a big news story about how Target "accidently" lost all the data from DL's or how their servers got hacked and the data was stolen, and how no one even knew they were keeping it. I'll pass and stick with my local neighborhood liquor store who looks at my ID and doesn't try to record any data from it.

Maybe the purchaser looked young for the age listed. Or the license looked fake. When I use to bartend, I would from time to time, get a license that looked "wrong". I would have loved a scanner or database to check, because my only option would have been to deny the customer a drink, and of course they would be furious and write Consumerists......

@prag: If you do that, you can be denied purchase of controlled substances that require ID.

Depending on what state your license was issued in, the bar code may contain less than you think. Here in Michigan, the barcode (and the magnetic strip) only have have the license ID number, date of birth, and the expiration date of the license.

On the other hand, some states include full names and addresses in the machinable-readables. I recall reading years ago about bars in Massachusetts using magnetic strip readers to build customer mailings lists.

So, hey, maybe Target just wanted to send him some coupons for wine!

Costco did this when I bought a membership.

Same thing happened to me at a Walgreen's while buying some of the REAL Sudafed, not the other crap.

I'm going to put my tinfoil hat on for a second... How long until this data, if it's recorded, becomes very valuable to insurance companies, consumer reporting agencies, or some other yet to be discovered information broker? Almost all insurance applications have a check box about how often you drink, smoke, etc. How much would an alchol company be willing to pay to see what age ranges of people buy what type of alcohol.

I know that a lot of people think it's just to validate the information. And I'll say that, in practice, that seems like a good idea on the surface. But I'd be willing to bet that the driver license information is recorded somewhere, so that if there is an audit or inspection, they can prove who/what ages bought alcohol.

At some point, I'd be willing to bet this information is shared with someone other than Target. Most information we provide seems to happen this way. Whether it's the registration card that ends up used for marketing or check writing history used for check verification. History shows us that nearly every piece of information we provide to some third party ends up somewhere else, in some form or another, used for something we never intended.

Something to think about.

@prag: Everything that's on the front of the license, machine readable.

I work at Target and we now have to ID every single person that buys any age restricted item, whether you were born in 1924 or 1984, you're going to have your ID checked. There is no way to override the prompt. Too many stores got caught in TABC stings and it costs the company far too much money in fines, alcohol education classes, etc. However, there is an option (at least on our super new registers) to just key in the guest's birthdate, scanning your driver's license is not required.

@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy: The fault should lie with the person who presents a fake ID, regardless of what steps a store does or doesn't take to verify it. It shouldn't be their job to scrutinize identification beyond just looking at their number. As far as I'm concerned, they should be off the hook the moment anything fraudulent was presented. No need for invasive measures like this where data could easily be recorded (it may not be, but we have no way of knowing that).

But then again I don't think it's that big of a deal if some underage people buy alcohol. So I'm probably biased.

Wow, paranoia is so rampant!

Every major bar I've been to swipes the magnetic section of my DL which doesn't "save" the data but does pull the encoded info off of the license so that it can be verified against what's printed on the card (this is in Texas, by the way).

Sounds like CYA policy, nothing nefarious. If you're looking at a low-line employee for knowing the "dark secrets" of a corporation, you give way too much credit to orientation processes... anywhere.

I have seen this done in line at 7/11 too...cashier swipes it through the POS. I am guessing it just checks to make sure the information is on the magstripe and it isn't a fake (although many better fakes also have encoded magstripes). I highly doubt it is connected to any sort of government database, but who knows what the stores do with this information.

@thesabre: Did you not notice the fact that the post is a question, and not a condemnation? That valid arguments for both sides are put forth? Or is anyone even daring to question a corporate policy anathema to you?

What REALLY needs to stop around here is people flying off the handle at any suggestion that something, somewhere, might be going wrong. Because God knows everything is perfect, always, and anybody who questions that must be shouted down immediately.

Rite-Aid has been doing the same thing for a long time, even for cigarette/nicotine replacement purchases. Now they also do it for cold meds.

@Evil J: I agree, I think the snarky comment made by the cashier was more to make themselves feel like they have some sort of power over the info.

There couldn't be all that information in a bar code. It's probably just registering the ID number for verification of validity, and, worst case, looking up the information in a public database. That's something they could do by punching in the number manually. Though, you can see them doing it and stop them.

I'd be more worried about the fact that this information is, in a sense, being sold to Target by the state without informing us. That would be the case whether they had to look it up or the bar code actually had things like your name and address encoded in it (which it wouldn't).

The customer has just inadvertently given up all of his license data to a nameless corporation.

I think you mean faceless... or heartless.

isnt it illegal to collect information like that? that barcode simply verifies the ID is legit and that you DOB is actually after 1987 or whatever the 21 age year of birth is right now.

People cant do math. people dont do their jobs. Just as mcdonalds has the little picture of a burger, this is their over simplified version.

@MercuryPDX: Card stock? When I worked retail, I once had two teenage boys try to buy liquor using blurry photocopies on regular paper. (How blurry? I couldn't even read the the false information!) When I called them on it, they tried to convince me "that's what the new licenses look like." Idiots.

I crumpled up the fakes and kicked them out of the store. (As it turned out, I should have kept the fakes -- A week later, my employer instituted a $20 bounty on confiscated false IDs. My timing is always off by that much.)

@hoot550:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but legally, aren't corporations required to gain your permission to share personal information with a third party?

Not saying it couldn't be done, but as litigious as this country is, beyond the government, I'm 99% sure that unless they were opening themselves to litigation, Target would have to disclose/gain permission to share any data with a 3rd party organization.

I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but I think it's funny that the Consumerist is spending its time worrying about IDs being scanned for beer and wine when it could be focusing on, oh, I don't know... how T. Boone Pickens is defrauding the entire country. Just a thought.

@hoot550: Yes, this sort of thing is becoming a pervasive problem as more and more private organizations collect large aggregations of data about us. It's so easy to retain all this information now that lots of companies are doing so and using it for purposes other than the original stated purpose (such as market research). I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing widespread use of this sort of data in insurance, lawsuits, divorce and child custody hearings, etc.

I think at the very least we need strong data privacy and anti-data-retention laws. We might even need a new government regulatory agency with sweeping powers to audit and disclose to the public exactly what companies are doing with information they collect on us. Because otherwise privacy policies and such are just an empty promise that we can't verify compliance with.

@msbask: They're not recording it. Just look into the code driving the cash register (if target lets you). All it's doing is comparing what it's read from the barcode to the format and data a legitimate bar code has.

At most, it additionally displays what it gets from the barcode on the screen so the cashier can compare it to what's printed on the license.

Just a read and compare. No write involved.

Just a follow up, I used this a while back and it worked for me. This will tell you what's on the bar code on your license.

[www.turbulence.org]

I think I've seen this at some grocery stores.

On a side note, it's amazing how easy it is to tell cashiers to do what you want them to. I once went to a restaurant and ordered a drink, but I only had my temporary license that does not have a picture, and in California, they take away your old license - it was right after I got married and changed my name. The waitress said it had to have a picture, and I said, "but this is my valid driver's license" and she brought me a drink.

I also bought some wine at Safeway when my husband didn't have his wallet on him. When the cashier asked for his ID he said he'd forgotten his wallet and added "but I am over 21 if that helps". I also added that he's my husband... I don't think that is supposed to make any difference, but she sold us the wine.

I will note that I would not have argued with the people in either situation if they had said "that's not good enough". I know that they are the ones who are at risk if they sell alcohol to minors, so I would politely submit if they refused to sell it to me. Now, the one that really gets me is having to show ID when buying cold medicine... when did that happen?