We welcome media inquiries and believe transparency and open conversation leads to better public understanding of how our technology works. Below is our record of this inquiry, the questions we received, our responses, and a quick fact check of the published article as it relates to Patronscan.
| Publication Name
CBS News Bay Area |
Method of Contact
|
| Date Contacted
17 August, 2026 |
Contact Name
Shane August |
Questions & Responses
Questions are listed as received. Our responses below are the complete, unedited text of what we submitted.
Question:
Can you please provide a statement regarding 3 San Francisco Castro neighborhood Gay bars that have ended their use of PatronScan technology due to privacy concerns?
Our Response:
Thank you for reaching out on this.
We have appreciated the chance to engage in many productive, positive conversations with the community and our clients in San Francisco, provide additional information on how Patronscan works, and reassure people who have reached out on the limited use and retention of any information in our system.
If it’s helpful for you, we’ve also previously published our response to community questions and local media coverage in San Francisco so that there’s additional context available to anyone who wants it: https://patronscan.com/articles/lets-clear-a-few-things-up-how-patronscan-actually-works/
Our practice is also to publish media questions and responses in full on our own channels to ensure transparent and complete information is publicly available. You can see previous Media requests and our responses on our website here: Media Requests
We understand why people have concerns about technology and privacy; those are important conversations worth having and we are always glad to be part of them and share accurate information about how our service works. We take our responsibility very seriously in making sure that our product is used ethically and in accordance with all privacy and data protection legislation.
The most persistent misconception in recent coverage is that Patronscan is a facial recognition system, can scan faces, or that we collect biometric data. None of this is true for our North American product. There is no facial “scan” or comparison, no analysis or algorithmic matching done on the Live Photo taken – it is simply a photograph.
All personal information (including any live photo taken at the time of scanning) not attached to a Flagged incident is deleted in accordance with local privacy legislation and data retention allowances. For our bar & nightclub clients in California, this is set to a maximum of 21 days.
We have detailed information available at www.patronscan.com/privacy, including clear outlines of what data is collected, how long it is stored, who has access, and how it is protected, as well as information on how patrons can request a copy of any data held through our Disclosure Request form. This website, as well as the email address for our Privacy office, is also displayed on all Disclosure and Information signage posted on or near the scanner at points of entry for patrons to review before handing their ID to door staff to be scanned.
The venues investing their own time and money in implementing safety tools such as ours are doing so because they genuinely care about the people walking through their doors – we have heard countless stories and testimonials from our clients sharing how our product has protected their employees and guests, kept out bad actors with ill intent, or helped hold someone accountable after serious safety incidents such as assaults, theft and even homicide investigations. We are always happy to support our clients as they try to do right by their communities, and we value the feedback we receive to continue building and developing Patronscan in a way that makes sense for the venues using our system.
Fact Check
The resulting article from this inquiry was published on August 18, 2026. The following Fact Check is only relating to statements directly relating to Patronscan, our technology or our operations. We’re not commenting on the broader article, its sources, or unrelated claims.
| AS PUBLISHED | PATRONSCAN’S CLARIFICATION |
| The article refers to Patronscan as a “face-scanning technology” | Patronscan system does not scan faces, it takes a photograph. No analytics or facial recognition is used in our North American product. |
| Article states that ID scan and photo are stored in a database that is shared to venues that subscribe to the network. | The only data shared across multiple Patronscan venues is the information attached to Public Flags created; most scan history is only visible at the venue where the ID is scanned, and is deleted after 21 days. |
| “There is no option for patrons to opt out of having their ID scanned and photo taken at bars using Patronscan.” |
Patronscan does not dictate individual venue entry policies; option to opt-out of scanning an ID or having a photo taken lies with the individual venue and is something we are happy to support our clients with. |
We understand that news reporting is a challenge of gathering and presenting a large amount of information in a short, readable format. We publish all media responses here so you can read exactly what we said, in full. We believe open, fact-based conversation is the best way to promote understanding of our technology and the role it plays in venue safety. If you have questions or would like to speak with us directly, we’d love to hear from you at media@patronscan.com.