Beijing business today today (reporter Wang photo) scanning code and ordering food has almost become a necessity for restaurants. In some restaurants and after scanning the code, consumers are forced to scan the code to order food. 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 2022 Beijing Catering Industry Observation Report (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' mandatory scanning code for ordering food and paying attention to and uploading personal information after scanning code, especially worried about information leakage.

Report: Improving information security accounts for a high proportion.

The report shows that "what can be improved in the offline catering service in Beijing at present?" Problems such as cost performance, information security, category richness and serving speed 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 dining 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 at present, some consumers 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 this information will be leaked after uploading. In addition, if you don't take the initiative to delete after paying attention, the merchant will always push relevant advertisements.

In addition, some consumers are "forced" to scan the code to order food. During the interview, some consumers introduced that when the young couple barbecued Northeast Cuisine, Nanyang Tea Room and other restaurants, they were told that there was no paper menu when they asked the waiter for the menu, so they could only scan the code to order food.

Merchant: Digital upgrade is the original intention.

Faced with consumers' doubts 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 are beginning to join the digital ranks. 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.

A person in charge of a catering brand told the beijing business today reporter today that online ordering can further reduce costs 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 in consumer demand, and provide data support for enterprises in product line adjustment, thus enhancing the consumer experience. When it comes to "mandatory" provision of personal information, the person in charge of the above 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 that "enters the network" always leaves 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 consumers' personal information, which not only violates the legal principle of collecting and using personal information, but also is suspected of excessively collecting consumers' personal information. Moreover, if it is not properly kept, the personal information of consumers may be leaked or lost. Operators can use new technologies to improve operational 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 an obstacle 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 and avatars, and some people 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. Consumers are faced with the problem that they can't order food without authorization, which is largely due to 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 merchant's scanning ordering is set to the point that the consumer can't complete the ordering without authorization, so that the consumer has to authorize and agree to provide information unrelated to food consumption, then the merchant has the behavior of excessively collecting personal information, which infringes on the rights of the consumer, which is not in line with the provision of Article 1035 of the Civil Code that "the handling of personal information should follow the principles of legality, justice 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 they collect and store, 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 relevant competent departments. 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