You see them everywhere. Tempting your phone. Tempting you to click. Offering you deals. But should you click that QR code with your phone? It depends. Here’s the thing—QR codes don’t just lead to apps that you may (or may not) choose to download. They can lead to phone numbers, websites and they can lead to malware. If you see a QR code and you aren’t sure if it is from a reliable source, don’t click on it, because you never know where it will take you.
These days many people use one phone for both work and personal purposes. This is understandable because who wants to carry more than one phone? But if you infect your smart phone with malware, you could end up seriously compromising client data.
Think about it this way. We assume it is perfectly fine to run our credit cards through a convenience store card reader. But sometimes those card readers belong to people with nefarious plans. Even the most savvy of us can be fooled. It is even easier for someone to just put up a piece of paper on a QR code, make you think you will receive some benefit from it, and convince you to click.
Before you click, make sure that the QR code you are letting into your phone is really what it says it is. Check with a clerk from (a reliable) store, look on the company’s website, ask questions. But above all, don’t just click that code.
Jennifer Ellis is an attorney at Lowenthal & Abrams in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Email: [email protected].
