Noob foreigner question - Why do some spa's ask for ID?

[leee18]

Hey all

Foreigner here. Was in town last week for work and I tried to hit up a few places mentioned here, but to my surprise they asked me for my ID. I didn't have it with me since my passport was in the hotel safe.

Is this a normal practice and what's the reason they need to have it on record?

[Jazzsinger]

I am foreigner too in this country over the past 7 years. It is quite normal for Spa's to request for ID. It is mandatory for them to register the customer in their system. Notning to be too concerned about.

[Pokkatea]

its normal...i am a local,the spa ask me to key in my id too at their ipad website

[afterburn]

This practice came about during the days of SARS back in 2003, and the purpose was for contact tracing. Just in case an infection originated in a spa then the customers can be tracked and told to take precautions.

But after SARS went away, the rule to take customer contacts remained. If i am not mistaken it is spelled out in the massage establishments Act. Certain category of massage shops must keep a record of customer nric number. How important is it? Go figure : The more recent PDPA law even make an exception that massage shops are permitted to ask for your FULL nric number.

When there are enforcement checks, the spa owner can be fined if found to flout this rule to record down the customers' particulars, and this includes allowing customer to anyhow write nonsensical nric numbers without verification.

And that's why some shops very kiasu, the recep or ML will ask to see your nric to check that the number matches what you gave them.

All this is fine with me; what i hate are those shop that go overboard and use electronic record-keeping system that REMEMBERS your particulars every time you visit. Imagine if such system get hacked...