What is going on?

Friday June 4, 2004. The doorman at the bar asked for my ID. I'm clearly over 18, but whatever. The guy grabs my ID and turns around and stuffs it into some machine. Wait, what's happening here? Too late. I force my way around the guy and see a copy of my drivers license on the computer screen and this tacky looking interface that says "BarWatch."

"What the hell is that," I demand, pointing at the screen?

"Blah, blah, lies, it's for the clubs protection, blah blah, lies," replies the goon.

"Who owns this? Who's getting my data? Why did you scan an image of my whole license!?"

"Oh, it's just our club, lies, the police, blah blah, lies, RCMP blah, more lies, our protection, see how I lie. Nobody has your information, it's just so other clubs know if you've been in trouble, blah, and did you like that big lie?"

"Your protection!? What about my personal privacy!?"

Blank stare.

BarWatch Facts

• What BarWatch is doing is ILLEGAL! And yet it is supported by the POLICE! Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (www.privcom.gc.ca/information/02_05_d_08_e.asp)
  "*The law requires organizations to:*
  * obtain your consent when they collect, use or disclose your personal information;
  * supply you with a product or a service even if you refuse consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information unless that information is essential to the transaction;
  * collect information by fair and lawful means; and
  * have personal information policies that are clear, understandable and readily available."
• BarWatch's actual history is dubious and unavailable. At this point we are unable to determine precisely where it was started, when it was started, and who originated it. There appear to be several different geographically disparate groups using the name BarWatch.
• BarWatch in Edmonton is a joint venture between local business owners, Edmonton Police Service, Emergency Response Department, Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission, City of Edmonton Licensing Departments, West Edmonton Mall Security, Operation Red Nose, and Keys Please.
• Jeff Christie, President of Panacea Data Management Corp., one of the principal companies behind the Edmonton BarWatch System, tells our source that "Edmonton Police Sergeant Gary McCarthy (780-496-8525) approached me (Jeff Christie) to do this project."
• Jeff Christie has readily and willingly divulged via e-mail how their data is encrypted and how to decrypt it! He told this to someone he didn't even know! Read on, we'll give you all the details in Jeff's own words further down the page.
• The BarWatch reader actually SCANS your whole ID, it doesn't just read the barcode. This enables them to steal your picture, your home address, your birthday, your height, your weight, and your signature.
• BarWatch programs have also been started in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and who knows where else.
• It is a requirement for all businesses using the BarWatch System to install a video camera and VCR to film customers entering and using the establishment.
• The BarWatch website (www.barwatch.ca) claims that the customer is informed and must offer consent before their data is collected. It is clear that this is a blatant lie as the people working the door snatch your ID and scan it before you even know what is happening. Other BarWatch sites claim that signage and other information explaining the BarWatch system is posted at the establishment using it. This is also a blatant lie.
• The BarWatch website also claims that only "authorized staff" at the clubs will be able to view the customer's private data and that the data will not be transferred to any other party without the customers consent. The site also states that they will provide your information to other persons "where the other parties are our participating clubs who assist us in serving you." Ok, so that's basically anyone willing to buy the information. Plus don't forget law enforcement.
• The BarWatch website states that your personal information will also be used for direct mail and telephone marketing.
• The day after this article first appeared (2004-09-06) all of the pages on BarWatch.ca were taken off the server (2004-06-10) and replaced with an under construction message. We grabbed a copy of the old site from google cache though.
  [ index.html | privacy.html | benefits.html | join.php | contact.html ]
• Systems similar to this are popping up in clubs all over the world.
• You have no idea where this information is going and BarWatch sure isn't telling the truth about it.

Implications

You may be saying "So what? I have nothing to hide."

If that is the case you are a gullible idiot and are part of the problems currently plaguing our crumbling society. You don't deserve the last measly remnants of privacy and freedom that you still barely have. Privacy is a fundamental value in a democratic society.

"Privacy is related entirely to the degree to which we respect each other as unique individuals, each with our own sets of values which we are entitled to make known or not as we see fit. To truly respect your neighbour, you must grant that person a private life. Respecting one another's privacy means the difference between a life of liberty, autonomy and dignity, and a hollow and intimidating existence under a cloud of constant oppressive surveillance." —Bruce Phillips, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 1999

Here are some plausable potential abuses of the information in the BarWatch database:

1. When the auto insurance companies start buying this data from BarWatch to see how often you visit the bar what do you think is going to happen to your already inflated insurance rates?
2. Warrant out for your arrest? Too many traffic tickets? I'm sure the alarm bells will sound at the nearest police station as soon as your ID is scanned into BarWatch. The Police can just swing by to pick you up.
3. A cop stops you and it indicates on his Mobile Data Terminal that you were scanned into the BarWatch system at a bar nearby 4 hours ago. Step out of the car please...
4. Try getting affordable life insurance when they can check with BarWatch to see how often you go out drinking.
5. Criminals break into the BarWatch database and begin creating duplicate ID's from the images of your ID which are stored on the BarWatch system. With those ID cards they can then easily open bank accounts, get credit cards, rent cars and other equipment, all in your name and you will be held responsible by authorities.
6. Prospective employers check with BarWatch before hiring you to see how you spend your off-hours.
7. Alternative lifestyle? Do you want just anyone finding out about the stripper bars or gay clubs you've been going to? Employers? Insurance companies? Your family? BarWatch knows all your secrets.

Can face recognition and DNA tracking in every establishment be far behind? Not at all. Machines which can suck a DNA sample off of you from a distance have been available since the year 2000. (Canada's DNA Database: Privacy's last stronghold destroyed, CYBØRG/ASM, July 21, 2000, www.hackcanada.com/canadian/freedom/canadna.html) And face recognition is already being adopted in a variety of venues around the world.

Far-fetched? Hard to say. But the fact is that there should not even be the potential for such a situation.

Are you scared yet? Outraged? You better be! What BarWatch is doing is direct in violation of Canada's Privacy Laws.

Write our privacy commissioner now stating your opposition to this BarWatch privacy invasion system. (http://www.privcom.gc.ca/) Demand that action be taken to shut down the BarWatch network.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
112 Kent Street
Place de Ville
Tower B, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3

Do it now!

"Snoop unto them as they snoop unto us."  — Hackers (1995)

So, just where is this BarWatch data stored? How secure is it?

In Edmonton...

BarWatch.ca is hosted at tera-byte.com by some reseller on a Linux server. (75-hosting.com) The software is written in PHP and MySQL. Historically not the most secure development platform. And we don't really know who all has access to it. Nice.

Also, Jeff Christie of Edmonton BarWatch readily reveals to one of our sources that "we (BarWatch) use an encryption key that is based off the barcode number that was used to create the account. Therefore every line in the db (database) had a different key used to create it. So to me, or anyone else all the data looks like is garbage without the decryption key... your (drivers license) barcode number."

Gee thanks, Jeff. Telling unknown people exactly how your encryption works and how to decrypt the data totally defeats the point of using encryption in the first place. What an amateur operation. And the Police support and approve of this?!

Futhermore, it turns out the BarWatch data is not encrypted at all. How do we know? Well, the BarWatch database has already been broken into. (Not by us.) We've seen the data from it, and it is clearly not encrypted.

In Vancouver...

RT writes: "The Software & Hardware is developed by a Vancouver company called Treoscope. The product used in the Barwatch network is called 'Vigilance'. www.treoscope.com/VSS1b.html provides a chilling look into some of the 'features'. The day to day administration of the network is performed by a company called Genesis Security."

The software I saw in the bar had pretty much the same features as shown on the Vigilance page, but it had the tacky BarWatch interface applied to it much like this webpage.

This Genesis Security (www.genesissecurity.com) website states "As a member for the last seven years of Vancouver's Barwatch, an industry association representing 22 nightclubs in the downtown core, we have developed new approaches to the issues facing the nightclub industry and downtown property owners. We work closely with the Vancouver Police Department and nightclub industry representatives to develop and refine our unique service capability in crowd management and patron control."

Who are the people behind BarWatch?

Barwatch.ca and pdmc.biz
    Toll-free: 1-866-443-0567
    info@barwatch.ca, feedback@barwatch.ca
Jeff Christie, President
    Panacea Data Management Corp.
    18511 - 50 Avenue
    Edmonton, AB, T6M 2R3
    Phone: 780-443-0567
    Fax: 780-481-2147
    Fax toll-free: 1-888-488-2147
    jeff@pdmc.biz, info@pdmc.biz
Technical Contact:
    Brad Moore
    brad@barwatch.ca

Vance Campbell - [picture]
    Vancouver, BC
    vice-president, chair, and spokesman for Barwatch
    vice-president of Granville Entertainment Group

John Teti, Barwatch chair, BC

75-hosting.com and affordable-data-center.com
Administrative Contact:
    Beima, John
    jbeima@palb.com
    11639-122 Street
    Basement Suite
    Edmonton, AB, T5M 0B6
    Phone: (780)451-1086
    Fax: (780)447-4760

November 25, 2009, reader "Matt" writes:

I was just looking at your information about Barwatch and thought you might like to have some updated information. Jeff Christie is the owner of BCAL Software.

jeff@bcal.biz
www.bcal.biz
21323 - 91 Ave
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5T 6Y9
780-983-8610

If you have any further information regarding BarWatch, the people behind it, or any clubs that are using it, please .

Do Your Part — Boycott All Establishments Using BarWatch

Be alert when entering a bar or club. Make sure they are not using BarWatch/BarLink/SecureClub before allowing the doorman to see your ID. The following clubs are reported to be using BarWatch/BarLink/SecureClub. Clubs using such systems clearly don't care about your personal privacy and safety at all. Call some of these places, ask to speak to a manager, and tell them you will never go to their club again as long as they use these privacy invasion systems.

Canada

Be Informed — Protect Yourself

"Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others." —Professor Alan Westin, 1967