Concerns over privacy and hygiene practices are behind a lack of confidence in dining out, according to a study by research agency Pollfish for GuestCheck Australia.
Two-fifths of those surveyed said they hadn’t been asked to provide details when visiting fast food outlets and 26 percent said cafés had failed to comply with contact tracing requirements.
The research also revealed 1 in 10 Australians purposefully provide incorrect or incomplete details to venues because of privacy concerns. Others said they believed it wasn’t necessary to provide their details if they had downloaded the COVIDSafe app.
While restrictions vary across states and territories, all jurisdictions currently require venues to provide contact tracing details.
There are a number of options for contact detail collection. The least prefered was pen and paper, with respondents expressing hygiene concerns about sharing the same pen with others (50 percent) and privacy (45 percent). More than a quarter (27 percent) said they ‘didn’t appreciate’ having personal information displayed where anyone could see.
Only 10 percent of those surveyed said they had been offered the option to check-in via QR code or digitally, despite these being the most preferred.
The latest round of restrictions for venues in New South Wales made digital records compulsory, however only 12 percent of Sydney respondents had experienced digital check-in at venues in the city.
A third of respondents were worried venues wouldn’t store or destroy their data properly, and nearly a fifth were uneasy about details being used for marketing purposes.
The research surveyed 1,500 Australians aged 16 and over.
Image credit: The Conversation
