Two San Francisco gay bars, Badlands and Toad Hall, have announced they will stop using the PatronScan facial recognition system after facing a boycott from patrons concerned about privacy and the technology's accuracy. The venues stated they are pausing the use of the AI-powered platform to review their ID verification and security practices, with security teams reverting to manual ID checks.
Badlands, a long-standing establishment in the city's Castro District, and Toad Hall, a bar with significant LGBTQIA+ history, came under scrutiny in June when their use of PatronScan's Guard+ product was first reported. The system is designed to verify IDs and ages and to flag individuals deemed problematic across participating venues.
The decision is being celebrated by privacy advocates, including the advocacy group Fight for the Future. The organization, which launched a campaign against the technology that garnered support from musicians like Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, as well as Boots Riley of The Coup, views the bars' move as a victory. Fight for the Future has pledged to continue advocating for a nationwide ban on such surveillance technologies in bars and venues.
Currently, only three other establishments in San Francisco—Mix, Oracle Park, and 1015 Folsom—are reported to still be using facial recognition technology for patron screening, according to AI Action's Club 1984 website.
This development follows other recent instances where facial recognition technology has faced public opposition. In 2022, Madison Square Garden was sued over its use of facial recognition to maintain an "exclusion list." More recently, in July, Grocery Outlet stores in the Bay Area began employing facial recognition software to identify shoplifters.
Concerns about the accuracy of facial recognition technology, particularly its disproportionate impact on identifying Black and brown individuals, have been raised by multiple consumer tech advocacy groups. While some music festivals have signed pledges against using the technology, others, such as Outside Lands and the iHeartRadio Music Festival, have not. Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, emphasized that the use of such AI software is particularly concerning for vulnerable communities. "Queer and trans people want to be able to dance and gather and party without fear," Greer stated, vowing to continue the fight until gay bars nationwide commit to avoiding this type of surveillance technology.