Washington Restaurants Will Need To Track Diners' Info As Part of Reopening Requirements (eater.com) 226
If you choose to go out to eat at a restaurant in Washington, you will have to give the restaurant your name, phone number and email to facilitate contact tracing. This is just one of the guidelines that restaurants must adopt before resuming dine-in services during "phase two" of Washington's reopening plan. Eater Seattle reports: As announced previously, dining rooms can reopen at 50 percent capacity in this phase, with no more than five people at a table. But now there are several other strict requirements, including eliminating bar seating, distributing single-use menus, and logging diners' personal info to facilitate contact tracing, a rigorous method of tracking and monitoring those who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. That last requirement is one that perhaps may generate the most discussion. According to the state's phase two playbook, restaurants that offer table service must plan to keep a daily log of phone numbers, emails, and arrival times for everybody who comes in to eat. Diners are already used to giving restaurants such details to make a reservation, but Washington's rules state that all customers must be logged, not just one per party. At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee addressed some concerns over privacy, saying that the state would have the legal authority to prevent any data collected from restaurants for being used for purposes other than contact tracing (such as advertisements). "We would monitor it, we would audit it," Inslee said, adding that he's still working with leaders in the restaurant industry on coming up with a set of protocols that make sense. "It's very important for us to maintain privacy in this entire endeavor."
Try it maybe it will work (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Try it maybe it will work (Score:4, Insightful)
... the Ministry is very scrupulous about following up and eradicating any error. If you have any complaints which you'd like to make, I'd be more than happy to send you the appropriate forms.
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:D
Had to look it up just to be sure, but that quote couldn't have come from any other movie!
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Bloody typical. They've gone back to metric without telling us.
Re: Try it maybe it will work (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Try it maybe it will work (Score:5, Interesting)
A heterogeneous, decentralized approach to fascism; what's not to like??
The fascism, of course. But Coronavirus countermeasures are the will of the people [xkcd.com].
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A majority decision of people A, B, C, D, E, F and G is not in any way shape or form capable of prohibiting the meeting of persons H and I.
If you give the majority dictatorial powers, you have the textbook definition of Bolshevism, which means literally "majority".
Re: Try it maybe it will work (Score:4, Insightful)
B) Is anyone here stupid enough to believe the "polls" published by Official Media propaganda organs?
Wow, you're dumb as a brick. What do you believe, Daily Kos?
Re: Try it maybe it will work (Score:2)
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You realize contact tracing is a recognized reality as long as this virus exists right? Go found Galt's Gulch if you fear living in society.
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"My name is Terry Towel, my phone number is 512 555-1212"
I didn't see in the law where YOU as the customer HAD to give your real name and phone, eh?
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Cute, you think you won't be asked for ID to take down name and address at least? Sure, lie about the phone number but with a real address (even an old one) and real name, good enough.
It's lame and it's a great reason NOT to go sit down at that eatery. Just do the take out option. The place will fail either way because of margins.
Life is dangerous. Get over it and get back to living.
We don't need to try multiple things (Score:2, Offtopic)
Having 50 states doing their own thing is like having a peeing section in the pool (joke shamelessly stolen from a Fark.com thread).
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There's a 69 page guide floating around in the process of being ignored...
Any list of instructions that is 69 pages long deserves to be ignored.
Take the most important points, summarize them on a 3x5 index card, then laminate.
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Well, when things go to hell in a handbasket,
V = IR
F = ma.
The rest might be more powerful statements (the 3 laws of thermodynamics, e.g.), but you'll go an awful long way on those two alone (and they're easy to apply).
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Urine from a healthy individual is pretty much sterile (not completely, but your skin adds more bacteria to the pool when you simply jump in). And, the chlorine in a pool quickly kills any outliers. It's just a societal thing, like Americans being OK with eating cows/pigs/chickens, but not dogs or cats (and Bambis and bunnies are in between).
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Urine from a healthy individual is pretty much sterile . . . And, the chlorine in a pool quickly kills any outliers. It's just a societal thing
Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds, like cyanogen chloride. [sciencenews.org]
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Urine from a healthy individual is pretty much sterile . . . And, the chlorine in a pool quickly kills any outliers. It's just a societal thing
Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds, like cyanogen chloride. [sciencenews.org]
Yeah, "pool smell" isn't actually chlorine - it's the smell of the chemical emitted when urine reacts with chlorine.
NOPE! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: NOPE! (Score:2)
If only there was a way you could prepare your own food...
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If they want to survive...can you be more alarmist and scared? Getting this is not a big deal for nearly anyone of us. It's not fun but it's not a death sentence in the least.
I really hope we don't have more deaths because of the solution to this "scary" virus.
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This is why it's good that the country is a bunch of different states.
Except that California, Oregon and Washington have agreed to 'coordinate' their approach to managing the pandemic. And Inslee won't do squat unless Newsome pays out some more slack on his leash. I can just see Sacramento rolling on the floor laughing at the idea of talking Washington State into taking the shit for this idea.
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You can't have Russell, but you're welcome to Tom Brady.
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This is why it's good that the country is a bunch of different states. Each one can try different things and see what works.
Followed immediately by blocking travel between states because some states are stupid and made a cesspool of sick people. Oh but we need to track who belongs to which state for that. Well at that point we can issue passports to be shown at state borders.
I keep forgetting what does the U stand for in USA? Was it Unitedinnameonly States of America?
Whelp (Score:3)
If you choose to go out to eat at a restaurant in Washington, you will have to give the restaurant your name, phone number and email o facilitate contact tracing.
Then I won't be dining out anytime soon in WA -- ignoring the fact that I live in VA.
Not giving a restaurant my personal contact info.
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I was in WA in early April. Used Doordash quite a bit.
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Just give them fake info. This is completely stupid and useless. More theater. Just reopen the country. 48,000 Americans die of secondhand smoking every year (EVERY YEAR) and we don't hide in our basements because people smoke. Of course the Javascript programmers here will bleat "Nooooo......someone could die! It could me me!". Yeah, get over yourself. There are a lot of people who are much worse off than you are, who can't afford to work from home. Not everyone is a Javascript programmer making $100k a ye
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Of course the Javascript programmers here will bleat "Nooooo......someone could die! It could me me!". Yeah, get over yourself.
All my virtual funny mod point to you.
Re:Whelp (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't give a fake name in New Orleans. The mayor there has decreed that restaurants must check your ID to verify the info you give them is correct.
Welcome to New America where you need an ID to eat at a restaurant but not to vote.
Re: Whelp (Score:2)
Lololololololol, omg
Re: Whelp (Score:2)
You don't know how to eat with out going to a restaurant? Wow that's dumb.
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Washington will require ID too they just aren't mentioning it. Businesses would be liable if they allowed fake names.
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Contact tracing this virus is absolutely useless. CT can only be effective if almost everyone complies and you can see in the comments here alone how many people will refuse. Besides, its just pointless for a virus that can be infectious for weeks while showing no symptoms. Everyone is going to be exposed to it in a few months.
They know this. So why are they still pushing mandatory government tracking?
Re: Whelp (Score:2)
Other countries are managing it. Maybe learn about social cooperation?
And polling in the US demonstrates the majority firmly support lockdown. So no I don't take your trolling as indicative of anything much,
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Jambalaya is so yummy though. Can't I do both without an ID? Good thing I can still call in my pizza and pay cash at the door. Hope they don't start requiring ID for carry out.
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Just reopen the country. 48,000 Americans die of secondhand smoking every year (EVERY YEAR) and we don't hide in our basements because people smoke.
The US economy had no problem tanking itself before anything was shut down. "re-opening" is not going to magically stop people from hiding in their basements. Just so there is no misunderstanding as to what is at stake the cost of ignoring COVID-19 in the US is several MILLION lives lost.
Of course the Javascript programmers here will bleat "Nooooo......someone could die! It could me me!". Yeah, get over yourself.
The simple fact is too many people are scared shitless not just programmers. They are not going to go out and spend money until there is significant reduction of personal risk in doing so. What you or anyone else thi
Re: Whelp (Score:2)
Troll doesn't understand how the Internet works, or that Slashdot was a trans Atlantic site from the beginning.
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My name is Abraham Lincoln, My phone number is my email. Well, I don't have an email. Sorry.
Re:Whelp (Score:5, Insightful)
If you choose to go out to eat at a restaurant in Washington, you will have to give the restaurant your name, phone number and email o facilitate contact tracing.
Then I won't be dining out anytime soon in WA -- ignoring the fact that I live in VA.
Not giving a restaurant my personal contact info.
Most customers already do, in the form of credit card, and they call on the telephone to order and they often leave their phone number...
You're all like, "I'd rather die than be told to do what I already do!"
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>"Most customers already do, in the form of credit card, and they call on the telephone to order and they often leave their phone number..."
No, many customers do, others do not. And if they are there in person and pay with a card, there is no giving a phone number, address, or Email. And if you are paying with cash, there is none of it at all. And it certainly isn't being forward to the government (at least, not that we know of). Regardless, there is a HUGE difference between voluntary and mandatory.
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if you think this is going to prevent you from dying, I suspect you might need some counseling.
No, it's to prevent others from dying. Small but significant difference.
The contact tracing allows them to proactively warn people when it is known they have been in close contact with others who found out they were infected. Of course, the kind of person who wants to go out to a restaurant for a nice cozy dinner with friends or extended family during a pandemic likely wouldn't change their behavior even if they do get told that they have been exposed or might even be infected themselves.
Not really (Score:2)
The credit card payment record alone is sufficient to facilitate tracking.
And for those paying cash... don't need phone number and email for tracing.
Re:Whelp (Score:5, Insightful)
Then I won't be dining out anytime soon in WA -- ignoring the fact that I live in VA.
Not giving a restaurant my personal contact info.
FWIW, unless you're paying in cash, you're already handing over some (if not all) of that data regardless of state. Online orders usually require it. The mobile apps usually ask for a lot more (e.g. birthday) when you sign up. If you use a card the cardholder name is part of the data transmitted, and it's not difficult for businesses to identify you based on name + last 4 or 5 of the card number. (I'm not endorsing WA's plan, just pointing out the data is mostly out there already.)
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Either they accept pseudonyms and arbitrary unique/nonunique identifiers or FOAD.
Considering they are providing food to those who comply I think they won't be doing any of the FOADing.
Re: Whelp (Score:2, Insightful)
So don't go.
Some people really want to whine about sensible safety.
Re: That works for me (Score:2)
I will explain it to you. Again.
It means, "the same number of people die, but over a longer period of time".
The purpose is to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed, not to prevent infections.
Repeat after me, "flatten the curve saves hospitals not lives".
Re: That works for me (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't seem to know what "flatten the curve" means. Despite it being explained here and in the media countless times.
I will explain it to you. Again.
It means, "the same number of people die, but over a longer period of time".
The purpose is to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed, not to prevent infections.
Initially that might have been the case but now "Flatten the curve" means a lot of different things to different people. The most salient issue here is that your particular interpretation does not intersect with reality.
Either R0>1 and rate of new cases is going up.
Or R0<1 and rate of new cases are on the way down to 0.
There is no credible steady state in which the numbers hover just below capacity of hospitals to keep up. The real world just doesn't work this way.
There is no logical basis to assume R0<1 is unachievable in the US given it has been achieved in a number of functioning 1st world democracies.
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There is no credible steady state in which the numbers hover just below capacity of hospitals to keep up.
Which is why the only person talking about that is you. You just made up a strawman to argue with, and I have no idea why.
R0 ideally runs like 1.0 to 1.25 or so. That's enough to slowly infect everyone, but not so fast as to get anywhere near overwhelming hospitals. And hey, that's how it's going! If you want to see how this looks in your state, check here: https://covidactnow.org/ [covidactnow.org]
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Repeat after me, "flatten the curve saves hospitals not lives".
Except for all the lives it saves when better treatments or a vaccine/cure is found.
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No, it means "don't let the health services get overwhelmed by huge numbers getting quickly infected, and maybe buy some time for developing treatments, so that fewer will die."
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Your trolling attempts are so pathetic. Trolling used to be a subtle art and this is pathetic.
Re: That works for me (Score:2)
Your alt isn't impressing anyone
And so it begins (Score:5, Insightful)
Let it be known that this is the day mandatory government tracking began. Everything up until this point was companies dabbling. This is the real moment.
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Its interesting you think today is that day. Tracking has been going on for near a generation now and everything's been fine.
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I don't think everything is fine. I think some things are fine. But not all things. Especially the tracking-related things.
Re:And so it begins (Score:4, Interesting)
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Boo fucking hoo. Stay home.
Re:And so it begins (Score:4, Insightful)
Let it be known that this is the day mandatory government tracking began. Everything up until this point was companies dabbling. This is the real moment.
Conspiracy morons: This is all a hoax perpetrated by governments trying to oppress us for some unknown reason we can't deduce.
Local governments: Never mind, restaurants are closed again because nobody can fucking behave responsibly around other people for a goddamn minute, and science is not a liberal hoax, you morons.
I'm not sure tracking is a good idea. In fact, if you think it's necessary, you probably shouldn't be opening restaurants to begin with. But if you're going to open way too soon, while tons of people are still going to get tons of other people sick, contact tracing makes perfect sense. The alternative is having big outbreaks that get out of control and necessitate taking several steps backward, which no one wants.
Re:Like they'd bother (Score:5, Insightful)
And there is no "moment". There's a steady erosion
Okay, agreed. I guess I'm just taking this moment to "call it out" as you since since I think this is a milestone: requiring companies to gather information on our whereabouts and report it to the government. Yeah, that's crossing a line in my opinion. If I lived in such a state I'd give a fake name, phone number, and burner email - just like I do when the grocery store wants to give me a shoppers club card, or when filling out a survey.
The quarantine was put in place to slow the rate that people were admitted to hospitals to keep from overwhelming the system. Once the doors reopen there is no need to track people. People will get the disease, but no longer at a rate where the healthcare systems will collapse. Tracking isn't a solution to covid-19. I bet the people instituting it think it is though. That's how they get us - we do it to ourselves.
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Historically, every pandemic has had a worse second wave. Maybe this one will be different but likely not. Hopefully it'll be like the Spanish Flu, where after the second wave it just kind of vanished, or more likely evolved to be more mild.
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The quarantine was put in place to slow the rate that people were admitted to hospitals to keep from overwhelming the system. Once the doors reopen there is no need to track people.
Once the doors reopen the rate of spread will quickly jump to what it was before unless you also do something different than before. Tracking, tracing and testing is precisely the something different that will hopefully keep the spread low.
You don't think with cameras, number-plate readers, credit cards, phones and just asking people in the restaurant, they can't track who was in the area anyway? This would just make it easier to do it quickly and stop that chain of infections spreading.
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With a viable treatment and/or prophylaxis, tracing is largely unneeded.
If I had a magic wand. The lockdowns would have been unnecessary too.
Re: Like they'd bother (Score:2)
Contact tracing is part of the route out of lockdown.
But if you think government didn't have your details before this, access to financial and cell phone records, I do find that odd.
Re: Like they'd bother (Score:2)
Tell us again why Trump thinks having a polling booth requested by a republican governor is somehow a plot against him?
Re: Like they'd bother (Score:2)
Good point.
Yes... (Score:2)
all in the name of "safety" (Score:2)
You can't even audit you're own website, let alone several thousand retailers keeping grey area data secure. You clowns want this shit too happen...and by clowns I mean pretty much everyone nodding their head at this in approval...
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and?
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And you'll need a few more words to make a sentence.
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"You will"
That's right... fuck those liberties... (Score:2)
Right in the ass!
Dr. Bendover is in the da house folks!
What is the difference between the Government tracking you directly and ignoring your rights vs them forcing businesses to do it instead and demanding full access to the data?
And if you say warrants... ha ha ha... then you deserve to lose your liberty.
Every nation gets the government it deserves!
Fear... what a great motivator of tyranny... nothing works better!
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But But, this is for your safety. You should always give up your liberty to be safe! If everyone around you agrees to monitor everything you do for the best of society, you should submit and do what the elected officials tell you to! Its all for the common good.
Good intentions and all.
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What is the difference between the Government tracking you directly and ignoring your rights vs blah blah blah tyranny[sic] Freedom Fries
Here is what you don't understand:
The good people of Warshington State have Direct Democracy that supplements their Representative Democracy.
If they ebil representative gubermint abuses their health authority, the People will simply reduce that authority.
Done. Quit white knighting, the people of Warshington don't need to be saved by you.
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They need to be saved from people like you tbh....
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I don't live in Warshington, the only thing they need from me is for me to keep buying their apples.
Don't save them too hard, they do like selling those apples.
Re: That's right... fuck those liberties... (Score:2)
Have you sought help for that paranoia?
Fuck spam (Score:2)
A modest proposal for the info to leave (Score:5, Funny)
Name: Deez Nuts
Email: fuck.off@wa.gov
Phone number: 360-902-4111 (Jay Inslee's office phone number)
Re:A modest proposal for the info to leave (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly.
Actually, I'm an old person and old people sometimes don't have emails or computers. I also use a string and two cans for communication and my name is Phuck Ewe.
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Nah man. You stay home if you'd like. I'll go outside. Last I heard it's a free country.
Precisely (Score:2)
Try as I might I can't understand the logic behind shortening the working hours in grocery stores in particular. Or why public transport is still operating in Seattle and vicinity.
I live in Washington (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't say I'm planning to eat in a restaurant at this moment in time anyway. It's not as if anything substantive has changed over the past month+.
Most of the restaurants we frequent already offered take-out prior to the whole COVID-19 mess anyway - I'm sure it will continue to be available.
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Nope. I won't comply. (Score:2)
Not that I plan on going out to eat, anyway.
I will comply (Score:2)
Suckmycockandballs@aol.com is still probably taken. Hopefully, he doesnâ(TM)t mind my extra spicy Thai orders in His inbox.
Fake or nope (Score:2)
>"If you choose to go out to eat at a restaurant in Washington, you will have to give the restaurant your name, phone number and email to facilitate contact tracing."
Glad I don't live there. Sounds like a China wet dream. They would have two choices from me:
"555-1212, 100 nowhere street, nospam@mailinator.com"
or
"No thanks, I will eat at home."
>"state would have the legal authority to prevent any data collected from restaurants for being used for purposes other than contact tracing"
Oh, that makes a
So much for eating at restaurants (Score:2)
Checking IDs? (Score:5, Funny)
Absolutely Insane (Score:2)
They should use anon-tracing instead or don't go (Score:2)
So some woman in Auckland got stalked after doing this at a restaurant. Would be better if the wait staff had an iPhone or Android phone running a tracing app, then there is no need for this and the random number link disappears in a couple of weeks, theoretically. Also, as another poster wrote, the point is you are not supposed to open up and go to restaurants if it is a wildly contagious environment, which it obviously is.
one way (Score:2)
Guess that is one way to find out who the bad tippers are.
No way, no how (Score:2)
This is the reason I would not go eat at a restaurant at present/for the foreseeable future.
Too many restrictions. It is not convenient. ... and now, they want my info?
"For that reason, I'm out."
Marketing bonanza! (Score:2)
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Seatcovers are the growth industry.
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Service industry employees survive on tips. How much do you tip when you pick up carry-out?
Re: Most restaurants won't reopen (Score:4, Insightful)
Fix that then. Rest of the world people are paid for work, not left to beg for it.