Many financial transactions and personal verification efforts are made possible with today’s scanners, from identification scanners (such as handheld ID card scanners) to ballot scanners and barcode readers. With all of these scanners, information can be quickly and accurately transmitted just about anywhere, which is useful for site security law enforcement, voting, and of course, making purchases. These identification scanners can be found at police stations, work sites, retailers, and more, and often, fake IDs are spotted right away because the tech has become so advanced. What else is there to know about these identification scanners and other scan devices?
ID Readers
It is vital to verify a person’s identity, and all sorts of information about them, in many different contexts. For example, police officers and state troopers can use handheld ID scanners to read the driver’s license of someone they just pulled over, and have other identification scanners at the station, too. This is helpful for verifying who someone is, and see their criminal record and other statistics such as their date of birth.
But it’s not just the police who are scanning IDs to verify who someone is. This is also commonly done at places of work, such as a research and development lab or warehouses. When someone is hired at such a workplace, they will have their photo taken, and a small machine will print a plastic ID card for that new employee. This ID card can be presented to human security guards when the employee arrives at their place of work to gain admittance, and the employee can also present it to scanners to unlock doors. What is more, some work sites might allow those ID cards to double as a way to clock in and out, and this allows a group of employees to rapidly clock in and out without a hassle. Such ID cards can help prevent intruders and unauthorized people from getting into the workplace, since a security guard will turn them away, and people without those cards can’t open certain doors.
Finally, there is the matter of age verification at retailers. Some products, such as alcohol and tobacco, are age-restricted. The same is true for ordering alcohol at a sit-down restaurant. So, a customer (or restaurant patron) can present personal ID such as a driver’s license, which may be either examined by the naked eye or scanned. This verifies the holder’s age, and so certain purchases can be authorized. Most likely, a human staff member will also compare the ID’s photo to the appearance of the card’s holder.
Money
Many purchases today are made with scanner technology. Yes, some purchases are still made with cash and coins, and some small vendors might deal only with cash. But that is the exception. Retailers such as grocery stores, hardware stores, bookstores, and many more will have cash registers and scanners alike, where a customer may present a credit card, debit card, or even a gift card for scanning. That card’s barcodes and/or magnetic strip will be read, and this will allow the proper amount of fund to be transferred. Some debit and credit cards also have chips in them, which add an extra layer of security when making these purchases. A card will transfer money from a bank account or credit card company in a split second, and the purchase is complete. What is more, using cards is a good way to track a person’s spending, and they can view their spending online to check for any errors. If their ID was stolen and someone else is spending money on their card, the owner can contact the card issuer to lock that account to protect the rest of their money.
Ballots
Finally, scanner technology has its place in voting. Many modern voting sites will have human staff who will ask for a driver’s license or similar ID from voters, and verify their citizenship, age, and other statistics. The voter may then either use a touch screen to mark a ballot, or mark a paper ballot and feed it into a standalone scanner machine. Such a ballot scanner can accept hundreds of ballots in one day, accurately and quickly scanning and logging all of that information. All of this helps prevent voter fraud.