Vin Bange speaks with WIRED on data collection in pubs and bars, and the NHS Test and Trace scheme

Pubs are back! But they’re also not. From 6:00am on Saturday 6 July 2020, thousands of pubs, bars and restaurants in England could reopen their doors for the first time since the lockdown forced them to close in March 2020.

To start serving customers again, pubs have put in place a raft of new rules and measures. But there’s one government request to pubs that carries risks to customer’s privacy and poses a data-heavy bureaucratic problem for landlords. They’ve been asked to record customer details that can be used as part of the NHS Test and Trace scheme, which can be used to identify people in the result of an outbreak.

Read Vin's thoughts on how venues might collect this data in the full article, first published in WIRED on 4 July 2020.