Why would this be important...
1) Businesses some of which sell items that are restricted by age.... Tobacco and Liquor are 2 I can think of off the top of my head.
2) By letting retailers Scan a form of State Issued / Government ID, for Credit card sales, this would give Square and the business owner Proof that the person was Present to buy the items if the customer tries to file a Dispute with their Bank.
Just add a step before the Green Light appears on the Card reader for the business to scan the State issued ID. Businesses already ask for the DL at times to prove the person is the person using the card. But let Square have a step to actually record this information along with the Receipt. This would one help protect Businesses from loosing disputes as much and also show that Square is trying to help its Customers against the Banks siding with THEIR customers and not what is actually right. For example some businesses with Contracts that are signed and then the banks during the dispute sides with their client and steals the funds bank from the business.
After having my DL scanned at a gas station for items I bought, I was thinking what are they getting off the Scan of my DL. The 1D barcode on a PA Drivers Liscense gives some 15 digit code.... could this code be used to track a person? There is also a rectangular MicroPDF417 2D barcode. Since I have a 2D Barcode scanner, I tried scanning it in a word processor, and it gave out about 4 or 5 lines of text. In this text was my Drivers Lisc #, Address, DOB and more information. So PLENTY of information to verify to a Bank that the person disputing the Charge was there or they had their ID stolen too.
All Square would have to do is add a column to the Transacations CSV file labeled something like Age Verification or Name Verfication; for example. Make this as a Feature that can be turned on or off Like signature verification is now.
I do not see a down side of having this besides taking a few seconds longer per transaction to ask for and scan an ID. Heck Square might be able to even have it check the name vs the one on the CC for example. Again another step for Fraud protection. The only thing would be that Square may need to figure out which 2D barcode readers work with Square. I will even get you started the 2D Zebra DS2208 USB and the 2D Zebra DS6878 USB Cradle to cordless scanner both work with a Square Gen1 Stand.
