Patronscan Under Fire Over Biometric Data and 'Safety' Labeling

Patronscan, a Calgary-based firm operating in 300 cities across Canada, the U.S., Australia, and the U.K., is facing fresh criticism over its data handling and surveillance practices. According to reporting from the CBC, a Canadian woman was labeled a “public safety concern” on the Patronscan platform after being asked to leave a bar due to illness. This label was subsequently shared with other network members, leading to the woman being barred from the Calgary Stampede.

As reported by BetaKit, the company utilizes optical character recognition and barcode scanning to verify IDs, collecting sensitive data including photos, names, gender, dates of birth, and postal codes. While this data is stored for 24 hours to 30 days depending on the jurisdiction, Patronscan also maintains a “flag network” to alert businesses about behaviors such as theft, fraud, sexual assault, property damage, and violence. These flags can be shared network-wide and stored for up to one year in networked cases or five years in non-networked cases.

BetaKit further notes that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has highlighted concerns in the U.S. regarding the use of the service to track LGBTQ+ bargoers, which led some venues to terminate their use of the platform. In a statement to BetaKit, Patronscan said it is committed to helping the public understand how information is used and noted that individuals can file disclosure requests or use a flag-dispute process to appeal labels.