Austrailian National Biometric Pub List Use 'Explodes'

Pubs and clubs are signing up in droves to national and state biometrics databases that capture patron fingerprints, photos and scanned driver licences in efforts to curb violence.

The databases of captured patron information mean that individuals banned at one location could be refused entry across a string of venues. Particularly violent individuals could be banned for years.

The databases are virtually free from government regulation as biometrics are not covered by privacy laws, meaning that the handling of details are left to the discretion of technology vendors.

Venues typically impose bans of one month to a year, and it is up to the discretion of clubs to adopt or share exclusion lists.

Australia's largest database idEye, which pitches itself as the only national repository, has said that it has received an explosion of venues signing up to share lists.

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