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| A QR code that goes to the San Jose State University Website |
While new technology is always fun to use it is important to remember to use it cautiously and safely, especially if that new technology connects to the Internet.
Friday, September 13, 2013
QR Codes: Wonderful for You and Them
Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) are a slowly rising popular tech item. Originally created for Japanese Auto Industry, a QR code is able to hold a decent amount of data in a bar code like image. The image itself looks like a bunch of squiggly lines, but they are able to store things like phone numbers and websites. A QR code scanner allows a person to quickly access the data that is inside the code, and the rise of smartphone technology allows everyone to readily and easily have access to a QR scanner. The wonderful part of QR codes is that a person can quickly go to an advertised website without having to type in a long website address, and has changed the way outside advertising works.
However QR codes are also wonderful for people on the more villainy side of the Internet. Due to the growing popularity and ease of QR codes, they are attracting negative uses. One bad aspect of QR codes is that they have no security at all. A QR code is basically just an algorithm rooted into an image that takes you to whatever data is in the image. If a QR code were to take you to a malicious website then your device could end up being infected with all kinds of nasty stuff. According to a study by the Carnegie Mellon University, 85% of people who scanned random QR codes would also visit the website that was in the code. The study also shows that all it takes for someone to scan a random QR code is curiosity. A person could just create an interesting advertisement and add in a QR code that goes to a malicious site, and then you are in trouble.
While new technology is always fun to use it is important to remember to use it cautiously and safely, especially if that new technology connects to the Internet.
While new technology is always fun to use it is important to remember to use it cautiously and safely, especially if that new technology connects to the Internet.
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What caught my eye was your title "QR Codes: Wonderful for you and Them." In my mind, I was like "Who's THEM...?" I found it interesting that you covered the cons of QR Codes since I only considered the PROs. I never thought QR Codes could be so dangerous! Thanks for the advice on being cautious but it's so tempting to scan it, to find out if you could get some kind of bonus or free stuff. In either case, I'm likely to just scan it anyway.
ReplyDeleteYour blog was well researched and a comprehensive about most popular topic. It is important that every marketer should have extensive knowledge about QR codes. Even though there are many people know how to use QR codes, but it seems like it does not hit to its top yet because there are still a lot of people do not use or have smartphones. However, these are very interesting and remarkable used of this technology. It has a captive audience.
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ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that the security on the QR code is somewhat kind of insecure. We could even say that it almost has no security at all. However, I have to argue that it is almost no different that searching on Google for information that you want. The website that you visit could be a scam, or website with intention of stealing your identity. However, QR code is more insure than a website because we cannot see the link. Using our common sense, as a QR code users, we should all check the link that it is the link that we want to visit. This is so that you don’t hand in your personal information to identity thief.
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