Beijing business today News (Reporter Wang) Scanning code to order food has almost become a necessity for restaurants. Consumers are forced to scan the code to order food in some restaurants and after

Beijing business today News (Reporter Wang) Scanning code to order food has almost become a necessity for restaurants. Consumers are forced to scan the code to order food in some restaurants and after scanning the code. On September 3rd, 2022 Beijing Catering Brand Conference was held at the National Convention Center. At the meeting, Beijing Cuisine Association and Beijing Commercial Research Institute jointly produced the Observation Report of Beijing Catering Industry in 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the Report), aiming at understanding the development trend of Beijing catering industry.

According to the report, as of August 2022, nearly half of the consumers surveyed hope that offline catering services can improve the "information security" problem. Scanning code to order food has almost become the standard of restaurants. For catering enterprises, it is an important embodiment of digital upgrading. However, consumers are dissatisfied with some restaurants' compulsory scanning of codes to order food and the practice of paying attention to and uploading personal information after scanning codes, especially worried about information leakage.

Report: Improving information security accounts for a high proportion.

The report said, "What can be improved in offline catering services in Beijing at present?" , cost performance, information security, category richness, service speed and other issues are in the forefront. Among them, 46.22% consumers hope that offline catering services in Beijing can be further optimized in terms of information security.

The main reason why offline catering can be related to information security is the form of "scanning code to order food". As you can see from many restaurants, there will be a sign on the table that scans the code to order food. Consumers only need to scan the QR code with their mobile phones to place orders online.

However, this convenient form has caused some controversy. After interviewing many consumers, beijing business today reporter learned that some consumers will need to pay attention to the official WeChat account of the restaurant after scanning the code, or upload personal information such as nickname, birthday and mobile phone number to enter the ordering page. Some consumers believe that this operation has certain information security risks.

"Now many restaurants need to pay attention to the official WeChat account or registered members to upload information before ordering after entering the scan code ordering page." A "post-90 s" consumer told reporters that on the one hand, it is doubtful whether these information uploads will be leaked. In addition, if you don't actively delete it after paying attention, the merchant will always push relevant advertisements.

In addition, some consumers encounter the situation of "forced" scanning code to order food. During the interview, some consumers introduced that the young couple asked the waiter for the menu when barbecuing Northeast cuisine, Nanyang Tea Room and other restaurants. They were told that there was no paper menu and they could only scan the code to order food.

Merchant: Digital upgrade is the original intention.

In the face of consumers' questions and feedback on information security, beijing business today reporter today also interviewed the heads of several catering enterprises. For them, the original intention of the enterprise is only to improve operational efficiency and consumer experience.

The report shows that with the development of digital intelligence and the change of consumption environment, more and more catering enterprises have begun to join the ranks of digitalization. Whether it is scanning code to order food, delivering food robots or AI food analysis system, it seems to be a brilliant move, but it is actually a strong evidence that catering enterprises are struggling to move forward in the digital age. The data shows that just because the soaring cost forced the digital transformation of enterprises, the topic reading volume reached 924,000.

The person in charge of a catering brand told beijing business today reporter today that online ordering can further reduce the cost through digital operation, and it is also an important entrance for catering enterprises to collect user data. Through data, we can more accurately understand the changes of consumer demand, provide data support for enterprises to adjust product lines, and thus enhance the consumer experience. Speaking of "mandatory" provision of personal information, the person in charge of the above-mentioned brand explained that the third-party platform that now provides scanning code ordering technology can set options, and can order food smoothly even without paying attention to or submitting information.

In the eyes of the industry, the crux of the information security problem of consumers about offline ordering lies in whether the information provided is protected. On the one hand, whether personal information is leaked after uploading, and on the other hand, whether the offline dining will always leave traces and whether there are security risks. These doubts are all problems that need to be implemented in the process of continuous development of the industry.

China Consumers Association once issued a document saying that some restaurants no longer provide manual ordering, requiring on-site diners to pay attention to WeChat official accounts or small programs before ordering, so as to obtain personal information of consumers, which not only violates the legal principle of collecting and using personal information, but also is suspected of over-collecting personal information of consumers. Moreover, if it is not properly kept, the personal information of consumers may be leaked or lost. Operators can use new technologies to improve their operating efficiency and provide convenience for consumers, but they should first abide by laws and regulations and earnestly safeguard consumers' rights and interests. The application of new technology should not be a tool to restrict consumers' rights, an excuse to seize consumers' personal information and a barrier to mass consumption.

Lawyer: You can't collect consumer information excessively.

At present, many catering businesses require customers to scan the code to order food. In the process of scanning the code to order food, they will collect information such as consumers' WeChat nicknames, location information, avatars, and some even collect information such as mobile phone numbers, birthdays, and address books. In this regard, Li Li, a lawyer of Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm, believes that according to the traditional consumption habits of the public, it is completely possible to complete consumption by ordering food orally without providing any personal information.

Li Li emphasized that WeChat nickname, location information, gender, avatar, mobile phone number, birthday, address book and so on. The information that needs customer authorization is irrelevant to food consumption. The problem that consumers face is that they can't order food to provide the above information without authorization, which is largely passive authorization.

According to the provisions of Article 6 of the Personal Information Protection Law, the collection of personal information for processing purposes should be limited to the minimum range, and personal information should not be excessively collected. Therefore, if the scanning ordering of the merchant is set as that the consumer can't complete the ordering without authorization, so that the consumer has to authorize and agree to provide information irrelevant to the catering consumption, the merchant has excessively collected personal information, which infringes on the rights of the consumer, and does not conform to the provision of Article 1035 of the Civil Code that "the handling of personal information should follow the principles of legality, justness and necessity, and shall not be excessively handled".

Li Li suggested that catering businesses should not excessively collect consumers' personal information, and businesses should not disclose or tamper with the obtained personal information; Personal information shall not be illegally provided to others without the consent of natural persons. Merchants should take technical measures and other necessary measures to ensure the safety of personal information collected and stored by them and prevent information from being leaked, tampered with or lost.

Li Li further emphasized that if personal information is leaked, tampered with or lost, it should take remedial measures in time, inform natural persons in accordance with regulations, and report to the relevant competent authorities. For consumers, eating out can say no to the merchant's request for scanning code and ordering food, and always pay attention to protecting their legitimate rights and interests.

Beijing business today reporter Guo Zhangtianyuan