14 DAY TRIAL // David Litchfield of security firm Acuvant reveals that the McDonald’s from Sydney Airport records its customers’ conversations.
“Your conversations will be audio and video recorded for quality assurance purposes,” reads a sign at the entrance.
Although it might be a good thing that the company is trying to offer quality services to customers, one can’t help but wonder about the privacy implications of such practices.
These days, when almost everything is connected to the Internet, privacy has become a major concern. Every new online service that’s launched is thoroughly examined by privacy advocates and for a very good reason.
The problem isn’t just that the company itself monitors everything its customers do and say, but also the fact that a malicious actor could gain access to the data and misuse it.
From a cybercriminal’s perspective, such conversations can also be utilized to ensure the “quality” of a spam campaign.
For instance, if they can gain access to the information and they learn that most customers like a certain product, they can offer free samples in their next spam run to get users to click on a link.