Here’s something new to add to the list of things that suck about the pandemic we’ve all been dealing with for the past 18 months.
Those scannable QR codes on menus that have become industry standard with restaurants is probably been tracking you, analyzing your purchases, and collecting personal data on you.
How nice. A story in the New York Times notes that half of all full-service restaurants in the U.S. use the scannable QR codes and your info is being used for marketing purposes.
A lot of experts feel the privacy of people who dine at establishments with QR codes on menus is compromised. Here’s what Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU told the NYT.
“There have been disease outbreaks throughout human history, but never one that has taken place in the era of high-tech tracking tools and ‘big data.”
Yeah, it’s convenient to take a picture of a bar code and have the menu of your favorite restaurant or bar pop up on your phone, but at what cost?
The days of ketchup stained paper menus touched and handled by thousands of people monthly are probably over though.
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