Gold Coast nightclubs fingerprinting people

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties has accused Gold Coast pubs and nightclubs of going too far by fingerprinting patrons.

Queensland police and licensed venues are trialling fingerprint and drivers' licence scanners as part of a safety program that includes more security cameras and communication systems.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties (ACCL) president Terry O'Gorman says he is surprised the Queensland Government is going along with it.

Mr O'Gorman says it is a major invasion of privacy and clubs and pubs should not be trusted with that sort of information.

"There are some people - particularly women - who have good reason to be concerned about where this information might end up," he said.

"I mean unlike police who are subject to strict regimes of accountability people who work in pubs and clubs are not subject to any privacy regime at all.

"We say that this procedure is dangerous to women's privacy because there is just nothing to stop someone who takes a fancy to a woman to simply put down her address and then go around and look that woman up.

"This privacy infringement has to stop."

Quote: The corporations have to be stopped and the patrons have to stop them by not going to these places and start their own pubs and clubs. A place where they can do what they want with respect and with friends in privacy. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to force people out of corporate run pubs and clubs. There half out the door already.