[dTal]

I think it's a great idea, in theory (although Microsoft's use of it here is pointless though, as implemented). QR codes are just machine-readable text. Cryptic codes only accessible visually that are time-consuming and error prone to copy by hand? QR codes were designed for this.

Security issues with QR codes, while they exist, should be considered flaws in the QR reader. Doing anything with a QR code by default apart from displaying its content (not the content behind the URL that might be in the QR code, the actual QR code content) should be considered a security risk. And if visiting URLs = ownage for your device, you've got bigger problems.

If little bits of plain text are too insecure for us to handle, we may as well give up on the whole web, never mind QR codes.

[dave5104]

One of the problems, though, is that few, if any people (at least in the US) actually know how to scan QR codes.