Skip the germs, scan the squares

As a bit of a germaphobe, at dinner last night, I had to touch probably one of the dirtiest menus I have seen in a while. Granted, I was having dinner in a bar, but I recalled fondly the times that every table had a tiny little barcode I could scan with my phone’s camera to access the menu. I longed for the QR code but had to settle for hand sanitizer after flipping through the menu.

It’s true that COVID changed the world in many ways; there is no doubt about that, but one thing that stands out to me as something that made a big splash in the beginning and throughout most of the post-lockdown period in the United States was the prevalence of those tiny barcode squares in restaurants.

Those barcodes, or Quick Response (QR) Codes, were around long before COVID made them a staple in many restaurants, dating all the way back to 1994. The original use was for the automotive industry to more easily track parts and inventory, but today the uses have expanded dramatically. QR codes are very versatile and can hold lots of information.

You know the codes. You’ve seen them, but have you ever thought about how you could use them, what they include, or the safety of the codes? I guess not. I recently added a QR code to my business card. I can hand someone the business card, and they can immediately scan that QR code to quickly find my contact information and add it to their contacts on their phone. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s effective.

Before diving in much further, let me explain the codes and what they can contain. QR codes are those square boxes with three dots in the two left corners and the top right corner, and a series of blocks in the middle of the image. The three dots are position markers. Those position markers help the scanner (such as your phone’s camera) to know the orientation of the code, allow the scanner to quickly focus on the code, and allow the code to be read from any direction. Also, as part of the QR code, you’ll find a quiet zone, which is a blank space that prevents surrounding images or text from interfering with the code. Inside the position markers, you’ll find the data module, which is the black and white squares that hold the actual data that is part of the code.

Wow, that was more than I anticipated getting into here, but thanks for sticking with me here … there’s an important point to be made, namely, security. No one can look at a QR code and determine what it includes, so we rely on scanners to read that data and interpret it into something that we can read, such as a website that includes a restaurant menu. But what you cannot see is any, literally hidden, data in that QR code.

As with all technology, there’s risk in the hidden data in the QR code. Remember when we went “fishing” with my Grandma? Well, phishing can also happen with QR codes and leave it up to an Information Technology professional to give that another name, in this case: Quishing. Clever, huh? (I’ll insert an eyeroll here.) But the threat is real. Scanning a QR code from an unknown source presents danger. It may take you to a login page designed to steal your password, your credit card number, or something of that nature. An unknown QR code may take you to a site that can install malware on your device, or the code itself can download a piece of malware on your phone.

What can you do to prevent these threats? As with any technology, be careful and be wary of anything unknown. An unknown source should never be trusted. Generally, it’s safe to scan those QR codes in a restaurant, safe to scan a QR code on a business card, safe to scan a QR code on a flyer from a local business, safe to scan a QR code in any place you might expect it, such as an event that is asking you to use the code to donate money, check your results, or find out more information about the event coordinator. As with anything of this nature, always be vigilant. Think twice before you scan the QR code on the side of a random building.

As I finished dinner last night, I contemplated how much simpler those little black and white squares have made some things (yes, I’m that much of a nerd), but also how much riskier. Things often lurk beneath the surface, so next time you pull out your phone to scan that QR code, take a quick moment to think about the germaphobe and his story about menus, pause, and consider the source and check your surroundings. Besides, technology should be making our lives cleaner, not dirtier!