[wolverine876]

Not all, but many restaurants in multiple cities. They use QR codes, no doubt to identify you better (tie you to a specific place and time, maybe to a specific table). Usually I just load the restaurant's website on my phone and read the menu that way.

I was also at a play where a QR code was the only way to get the program.

[tkzed49]

What exactly are you suggesting the QR code is doing? My phone shows me the URL encoded by the QR code before opening, and I've never seen one with any additional information in the URL. They're not dynamically generating QR codes for you...

[chucksmash]

The static URL encoded by the QR code funnels you to a web page where that page view can be reported back to trackers and incorporated into your advertising profile.

Using your device to read the menu puts your device in the loop where formerly it was not.

[tkzed49]

Sure, if I suspend disbelief and assume that no other search engines or navigation services were used that do similar tracking—but the GP was specifically calling out QR codes, and they use the website anyway.

[chucksmash]

You don't have to suspend disbelief to come up with such a scenario. When I go to the bar down the street from my apartment, order food and a drink, pay cash and then leave, it was not an interaction that was likely to become part of my advertising profile. Now it is.

It's not comparing websites accessed via QR against every other already tracked thing in society, it's comparing it with laminated pieces of paper.

[wolverine876]

Have you used them at restaurants? I've avoided it, so I don't know.

I didn't mean they generate QR codes dynamically. It wouldn't be hard at all to encode the table number, for example, and then of course they have the time and know your reservation, and thus can identify their customer's phone.