Woman wrongly flagged by ID scanner as nationwide 'public safety concern'

Privacy experts are raising concerns after a Winnipeg bar flagged a woman as a nationwide public safety concern through its ID scanning system, which led to her being denied entry to a Calgary Stampede venue in July.

Alexandra, a Montreal-based lawyer, went to the Riverside bar in St. Vital on June 6, where a person working security scanned her driver's licence at the door using a Patronscan ID scanner.

Alexandra soon learned the Winnipeg bar is part of Patronscan's flag network, a system the Calgary-based platform uses to alert other venues about problematic people.

This risk (of becoming part of some widespread database more than of mistakenly getting blackballed) is why I stopped being willing to have private companies scan my ID at all. I'm fully willing to show it to a person, but not willing to have it scanned by a machine.

I just don't go to anyplace that requires it. There is no recreational activity that's worth exposing myself to these risks.