Slashdot: Washington Restaurants Will Need To Track Diners' Info As Part of Reopening Requirements

Washington Restaurants Will Need To Track Diners’ Info As Part of Reopening Requirements
Published on May 12, 2020 at 08:45PM
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.”