RSA 263:12 makes it a misdemeanor to electronically scan, record, retain, or store personal information taken from a license without authorization. A 2025 law, RSA 179:8, carves out a narrow exception for alcohol and tobacco sellers: you may scan an ID to verify age — you still can't keep the personal data afterward, except the 5-digit zip code.
Last checked against the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated and 2025 Chapter 143 (HB77) in August 2026.
New Hampshire's driver's-license statutes (Title XXI, Chapter 263) include a "Prohibitions" section, RSA 263:12, that criminalizes a list of ID-related misconduct — displaying a fake license, lending your license to someone else, and, in paragraph X, this:
It is a misdemeanor for any person to knowingly scan, record, retain, or store, in any electronic form or format, personal information obtained from any license, unless authorized by the Department of Safety. "Personal information" is defined in RSA 260:14 as information that identifies a person — the statute names a photograph or computerized image, Social Security number, driver identification number, name, address (but not the 5-digit zip code), telephone number, and medical or disability information.
Two things stand out. First, this isn't limited to bars or alcohol sellers — it's written to bind any person who scans any license in New Hampshire. Second, the prohibited acts include the scan itself when it captures data electronically, not just long-term storage — reading a license into a computer system is one of the four listed verbs, alongside recording, retaining, and storing.
RSA 263:12, X carries its own built-in exceptions. You may transfer personal information from the face of a license to someone else in non-electronic form — on paper — and you need the license holder's consent for that transfer unless it's going to a law enforcement agency. Pawnbrokers, scrap-metal dealers, and other secondhand dealers may scan and submit information to a law-enforcement database for the specific purpose of identifying sellers of stolen merchandise, with the license holder's consent, but can't retain the scanned data themselves beyond a description log. Real estate brokers may scan a license to confirm ownership during a property sale, but can't retain it past the closing date.
Separately, the same paragraph gives alcohol and tobacco sellers a liability shield, not a scanning permission: anyone selling alcohol or tobacco who exercises due diligence in checking ID isn't held responsible for accepting a fraudulent ID, and the unauthorized purchaser becomes liable instead. That's about legal responsibility for a bad sale — it doesn't, on its own, authorize an alcohol or tobacco seller to scan a license into electronic form.
That gap — a due-diligence liability shield with no accompanying scanning permission — is exactly what New Hampshire's legislature closed in 2025. House Bill 77, enacted as Chapter 143, Laws of 2025 and effective August 30, 2025, added a new paragraph III to RSA 179:8, the alcohol-title statute governing age verification at the point of sale.
RSA 179:8, III now reads, in substance: notwithstanding any other law, nothing prohibits a licensee from scanning any of the approved forms of identification listed in RSA 179:8, I — a driver's license, a state-issued nondriver ID card, an armed-services ID, or a passport — for the purpose of verifying the age of a person purchasing alcohol or tobacco products. That's the affirmative permission RSA 263:12, X doesn't otherwise give an alcohol or tobacco seller.
The same paragraph immediately re-imposes the retention limit: a licensee may not record, retain, or store electronically the photograph, Social Security number, driver identification number, name, address, or telephone or medical/disability information obtained from that scan. The only carve-out is the 5-digit zip code, which may be kept.
A New Hampshire driver's license, or a valid driver's license from another state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. territory, or a Canadian province, showing date of birth, name, address, and picture; a New Hampshire nondriver ID card, or a comparable picture ID from another state, DC, or a territory; an armed-services ID; or a passport from a country the U.S. maintains diplomatic relations with. Whatever is presented has to match the purchaser's appearance, be unexpired, and be free of alteration, erasure, blemish, or other impairment.
New Hampshire has had a separate, older affirmative defense on the books since 1990. A seller who does sell to someone under 21 has a defense to prosecution if all three of these hold: the purchaser falsely represented in writing, backed by an official document, that they were 21 or older; their appearance was such that an ordinary, prudent person would believe them to be 21 or older; and the sale relied on that representation and appearance in good faith. That defense predates and is independent of the 2025 scanning amendment — it's a courtroom standard for the seller's own conduct, not something a scanning app grants or establishes on its own.
The short version, once RSA 263:12 and RSA 179:8 are read together.
What the app actually does — no more, no less.
Reads the AAMVA barcode on the back of U.S. driver's licenses and state IDs, plus mobile driver's licenses from Apple Wallet via NFC, and calculates age on the spot — the read that RSA 179:8, III permits for alcohol and tobacco age verification.
Check ID doesn't keep the name, date of birth, photo, address, or ID number from a scan on its servers — not just the categories RSA 179:8 and RSA 263:12 name, but the whole set. There's nothing electronic left over to retain.
On Team accounts elsewhere, a one-way scrambled fingerprint of a scan — not the ID data itself — flags repeat entries within a configurable window. In New Hampshire, that fingerprint is turned off by default, since it's still information derived from a scanned license.
Team accounts log the time, result, and which staff member performed a check, without the underlying personal data — documentation that can support your good-faith compliance efforts, not a database of customer identities.
Applying RSA 263:12 and RSA 179:8 on the ground.
It depends what you're scanning for. RSA 179:8, III says a licensee "may scan any of the approved forms of identification" for the purpose of verifying the age of an alcohol or tobacco purchaser. Outside that specific carve-out, RSA 263:12, X makes it a misdemeanor for any person to knowingly scan personal information from a license into electronic form without the Department of Safety's authorization.
RSA 179:8, III bars alcohol and tobacco licensees from electronically recording, retaining, or storing a scanned ID's photograph, Social Security number, driver identification number, name, address, or telephone or medical/disability information. The one carve-out is the 5-digit zip code. RSA 263:12, X applies the same "personal information" concept, defined in RSA 260:14, more broadly to any person scanning any license.
As we read it, no. RSA 263:12, X restricts scanning and retaining information from "any license," not just ones New Hampshire issued, and RSA 179:8 separately lists other states' and Canadian provinces' licenses as acceptable proof of age. Because the restriction governs what the person doing the scanning may do in New Hampshire, the safest assumption is that it applies the same way regardless of which state or province issued the ID. Confirm with the Department of Safety if this matters for your business.
Yes. RSA 263:12, X only restricts scanning, recording, retaining, or storing information "in any electronic form or format." It separately allows transferring personal information from the face of a license to another person in non-electronic form, and requires the license holder's consent for that transfer unless it's going to a law enforcement agency.
New Hampshire has a specific affirmative defense in RSA 179:7, and it isn't something a scanning app can create on its own. A seller has a defense to prosecution if the purchaser falsely represented in writing, backed by an official document, that they were 21 or older; their appearance would lead an ordinary, prudent person to believe that; and the sale relied on that representation and appearance in good faith. A timestamped log of an ID check is documentation that can support showing those elements — whether it actually does, in a specific case, is a question for your attorney.
Check ID reads the barcode or mobile driver's license, calculates age, and shows staff the result without keeping the personal fields — name, photo, date of birth, ID number, address — on its servers, in New Hampshire or anywhere else. On Team accounts in most states, the app also keeps a short-lived, one-way scrambled fingerprint of a scan to catch repeat entries. In New Hampshire, that fingerprint is turned off by default, because even a derived fingerprint of scanned ID data is arguably information "obtained from" the license under the state's broad wording.
Check ID reads barcodes and mobile driver's licenses, calculates age on the spot, and doesn't store the personal fields behind it — built for exactly this kind of rule.