Restaurants are hungry for data, and waitlist apps are feeding them

[MUSIC] So let's talk about privacy Alfred, you've got a fascinating story on how restaurants are collecting our data through these waitlist apps, what's going on here? So, if you've ever been to a restaruant and it's kind of packed, and they say, you know give us your phone number and we'll send you a text when a table is ready, you can go walk around the mall, or something like that while you're waiting for your table, If they're using an app to automatically send you a text, there's a good chance that there are some privacy implications that come with that. So certain apps will keep your phone number for a certain amount of days, that restaurants can take a look at. Other apps, they're able to share it with third party marketers. One, for example, open table is owned Kayak, which means that they're able to share it with all their different websites. So, that's one example. Yelp owns one called Nowait, and they say that they don't really do any marketing with your number, but they do keep it if you're using their app. Interesting What restaurants and malls are you going to? All the nicest ones or the fancy ones in New York you know I live a very The best ones Do we have malls here? We do have malls here, they're rare but there're malls in Brooklyn in Manhattan Kings Plaza Okay yeah I know I guess you can call that a mall There's a mall in Harold's Square. Okay. Yeah, yeah. They had their famously almost-always empty Manhattan mall. Exactly, but yeah, so is this something that people should be worried about? It depends. I mean, if you really don't care about your privacy and you really just want the convenience of it, there's. They're doing this so it's much more convenient for you, so that the next time you go to this restaurant, they'll know, this guy likes to seat by the window or something like that, so. Got it, okay. A lot of it is done for the restauran't sake as well, so they know when their peak hours are, how long people are waiting, how long they should. Keep people waiting for without them wanting to leave, or anything like that. So it is beneficial for restaurants. But you do also have to be mindful of your privacy. Right. Or do you wanna be part of that experience? Right, it's just another example of how we're slowly giving away all of our information. You need a restaurant app burner number. Could do that. I'll make it a companion app that'll give you a 60 minute phone number and you can give them that. Alright, so we're way overtime. For more on this, check us out on CNET, I'm Roger Cheng. I'm Alfred Ng. Dan Ackerman. Thanks for listening! [MUSIC]