CLUBS TO AVOID IN SAN FRANCISCO

via SF Weekly

Last year, San Franciscans were pretty freaked out when they learned that some of their favorite watering holes had installed cameras and were live-streaming footage of them taking one too many shots of Patrón. To add to an already sinister Friday night, local bars have decided to go ahead keep tabs on you via facial recognition technology.

SceneTap, the Austin-based nightlife startup, is officially launching its facial detection software at 25 bars in San Francisco on Friday, including Mr. Smith's and Pete's Tavern. Using a free iPhone or Android App, you can get a snapshot of the San Francisco bar scene, including male-to-female ratio, average age, and crowd size -- all in real time. In short, you can find out if there are enough women to hit on before you bother getting decked out for the night.

So here's how it works, according to SceneTap: Bars place special facial detection cameras inside venues, which pick up on facial characteristics to determine approximate age and gender of the bar crowd. All your personal information remains anonymous, and nothing about you or your face is stored long-term.
Venue owners have their own stake in it. They will have access to this aggregated demographic information, and over time they can use it to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. In other words, did that ladies-drink-free special actually draw more women to the bar?

SceneTap is already up and running in a half-dozen other cities, and to date, the company's cameras have tracked more than 8.5 million people in bars and restaurants in these cities. In any event, here's a list of the bars that will be watching you:

Bamboo Hut
Bar None
Comet Club
Eastside West
Eve Lounge
Fluid Ultra Lounge
HiFi
John Colins
Kozy Kar Bar
Manor West
Mayes Oyster House
McTeague's Saloon
Milk Bar
Monaghan's
Mr. Smith's
Noble
Pedro's Cantina
Pete's Tavern
Polo Grounds
R Bar
Southpaw
Taverna Aventine
The Ambassador
The Wreck Room
Tope