Square Is the Most Annoying Thing to Happen to NYC Dining in Years [View all]

[Auggie]

Sub: It invades privacy, could diminish creativity, and honestly just lets businesses send too many emails

ny.eater.com / 8-30-18

Walk into any of today’s fast-casual restaurants — places with negligible service where you order at a counter, pick it up yourself, bus your own table, and even sort the garbage — and you’ll probably see Square. Known as a point of sale (POS) device, it looks like a white tablet computer, swivels around to face the customer as necessary, and dominates the counter.

It’s a product of Square, Inc., a publicly traded company based in San Francisco with a $24 billion valuation, and they’re spreading like wildfire — replacing traditional cash registers and a host of other seemingly obsolete payment schemes. On the surface, it makes sense: What’s wrong with a system that streamlines and standardizes the whole payment process and automatically provides an accounting?

First, of course, there’s the obvious problem that 78 percent of Americans have credit cards, meaning that 22 percent don’t. Not everyone has debit cards either, meaning a portion of people can’t buy food at cashless establishments. It’s an issue that disproportionately affects people of color and others disadvantaged by social class and other factors, as mentioned in an Eater piece earlier this year.

But I have my own reasons to be annoyed. As a person who often pays for meals in cash for the purposes of anonymity, I quickly discovered that many places using Square were incapable of taking cash or printing receipts. Doesn’t it say “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private” on every piece of American currency?

MORE: https://ny.eater.com/2018/8/30/17764042/square-rant-robert-sietsema

• Square knows where you go and how you spend your money.

• Square advertises that the company helps “personalize” each transaction ... "helps" restaurants engineer menus.

• Square shares information with a whole lot of places, including corporate affiliates, other companies that use Square, and “third parties that run advertising campaigns, contests, special offers” and other entities ...

... so expect lots of e-mail receipts and automated messages!

• Square is said to now be in use by two million businesses

Not your cup of tea? JUST SAY NO TO THIS PRIVACY INVASION.