Overview
- Two longtime Castro bars, Badlands and Toad Hall, have paused use of Patronscan’s Guard+ ID/photo system while they review security practices and return to manual ID checks.
- The pause followed a coordinated boycott and petition led by Fight for the Future that drew support from musicians and privacy advocates and publicly highlighted venues using the technology.
- Patronscan and its parent Servall say Guard+ does not perform facial recognition in North America, stores unflagged patrons’ photos for about 21 days, and offers online dispute and deletion processes.
- Critics point to risks from the system’s Flag Network that lets venues share alerts about patrons, worries about accuracy for Black and brown people, and the danger of creating centralized records of people who visit queer spaces.
- Other San Francisco venues including The Mix, Oracle Park and 1015 Folsom continue to use Patronscan and the dispute has prompted advocacy pressure and reported state-level scrutiny that could lead to further reviews or policy action.