Privacy watchdog reveals 10 restaurants' apps track customers' records for marketing

A number of restaurants track customer's activities through their mobile app and use the data for direct promotion, the privacy watchdog revealed on Monday.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data published the report on privacy concerns with electronic ordering, with 60 restaurants surveyed between last November and January this year.

Among them, ten restaurants that provide in-app ordering services will track customers' transaction records, internet cookies, their favorite food, device information, location and activity logs, etc., for marketing purposes.

Those included Café de Coral, Fairwood, Genki Sushi, KFC, McDonald's, Satay King, Starbucks, TamJai SamGor, TamJai Yunnan Mixian, and Yoshinoya.

Some restaurants' apps do not allow customers to consent or decline to receive promotional messages or marketing information.

The privacy watchdog added that four restaurants require customers to provide their phone numbers or email addresses before placing an order. One of these restaurants failed to present a statement regarding collecting personal data before asking customers to give the details.

The Privacy Commissioner's Office reminded citizens to pay attention to the potential risk of using in-app ordering services, visiting fake websites, or downloading malicious software onto their devices if the QR codes are tampered with by criminals, potentially exposing personal information.