Thruhike98 tried to buy some wine at Target a couple of weekends ago, and they were surprised at how invasive the ID check turned out to be:

My wife showed the cashier her license, which was behind a clear window in her wallet. He said, “No, please hand it to me.” We both assumed he just wanted a closer look. Once he had it, he immediately picked up a barcode scanner and scanned the back of her drivers license. I asked him what that was all about, as I had never seen anyone do that before. Almost bragging that Target now knows, for example, exactly where we live, he explained that the scan “gets all the information off of the license.”

Thruhike98 wants to know why Target needs all of this data, and so do we. As he points out in his blog post, it’s possible that by scanning the card they’re creating verifiable evidence that they performed the required ID check—but in the meantime, the customer has just inadvertently given up all of his license data to a faceless corporation. (One that won’t even respond to Thruhike98’s email asking them about the practice.)

We’d like to know whether Target retains all of the data they scan off the license, and if so, why?

“Target Must Record My Organ Donor Status to Sell Me Wine?” [Thruhike98]
(Illustration: Getty)

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