SF Entertainment Commission Says Attending Any Gathering Of 100 Or More People Means You Lose All Privacy Rights

from the how-about-that... dept

Jim Harper points out some ridiculous rules being considered by the San Francisco Entertainment Commission concerning any event that would exceed 100 people. The two key rules:

3. All occupants of the premises shall be ID Scanned (including patrons, promoters, and performers, etc.). ID scanning data shall be maintained on a data storage system for no less than 15 days and shall be made available to local law enforcement upon request.

4. High visibility cameras shall be located at each entrance and exit point of the premises. Said cameras shall maintain a recorded data base for no less than fifteen (15 days) and made available to local law enforcement upon request.

As Harper notes:

The First Amendment right to peaceably assemble takes a big step back when your identity data and appearance are captured for law enforcement to use at whim simply because you showed up.

Of course, this is similar to data retention rules being pushed on online service providers. The reasoning is basically because law enforcement wants it. However, there are all sorts of things that law enforcement wants but which it can't get because it violates our privacy. That's what the 4th Amendment is supposed to be about. But here we have the SF Entertainment Commission pushing rules that suggest that attending an event that has more than 100 people means you've automatically agreed to give up private info to law enforcement.

Filed Under: gatherings, privacy, san francisco, surveillance