> In a physical store, you can show the clerk your ID, they'll verify the birthdate, sell you the "secret item", and then forget your name & face the instant they move to the next customer.
This is not exactly correct. The clerk might, but not the database the card was scanned into. Depending on the secret item such as certain OTC medications, alcohol, tobacco, the information is not forgotten but kept for an extended time, and is stored and correlated in a centralized DB.
This depends on what you're buying and where. In Virginia we have an ABC (Alcholic Beverage Control) which is the only place you can buy spirits. They do scan your ID. The grocery store does not. The restaurants do not. The porn shops presumably do not, either. Basically the only other time might be to buy something like sudafed at a pharmacy, but I haven't done so recently enough to know if that's actually scanned at all, either.
This is not exactly correct. The clerk might, but not the database the card was scanned into. Depending on the secret item such as certain OTC medications, alcohol, tobacco, the information is not forgotten but kept for an extended time, and is stored and correlated in a centralized DB.