Yup this is creepy as shit....

Makes me happy, however, that I've never been on social media nor had SM accounts.

The importance of [1] "not being seen" [youtu.be].

[1] https://youtu.be/C-M2hs3sXGo?si=mlu8m2CxP65zAWSh

See the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" (S3E01). Apparently China has also implemented a Social Credit System that has been compared to this episode.

> This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

> Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

> Yes, having a waiter who knows you and is friendly makes for a better experience, but only if you know just about them.

> I am so glad that my only real social media is slashdot.

Per TFA,, the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process. This is a higher end restaurant whose clientele is likely to expect personalized service, just as when they shop at a boutique that caters to their tastes; and the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet.. We are at the point where if you don't want people loo

> This sounds like a dystopian horror film.

> Is there actually any benefit to the experience or is this some gen Z (sidenote, will we go to Gen A next?) idiot that thinks spying on people is required for good business?

Let’s just clarify something first. For the decades of targeted sales and marketing that existed before social media junkies started bitching about how their addiction to narcissism makes them unfairly vulnerable, this practice was simply called “data mining”. Or “intelligence”.

Only in the nonsensical era of social media mass addiction do we assume a rabid narcissist who simply can’t stop talking about themselves online could somehow be labeled as a victim of “spy

Personally if I owned a restaurant I would want to keep out anyone who takes pictures of their food and posts on instagram. There's a big difference between customers who have influence and self-styled "influencers"; both expect special treatment but there's nothing to be gained by giving it to the latter.

This is not about personalizing the experience. Theyre just spinning it that way. This is for their own protection. Michelin starred restaurants are basically celebrities, and theyre gonna be targets for malicious actors who want to cause reputational damage for their own benefit. The last person a Michelin starred restaurant wants as a customer is Johnny Somali, and theyre within their rights to refuse service.

Read the whopping two paragraphs.

Acquerello has collected guest data for 36 years, initially handwritten in books

So nothing new except for knee jerk social media=bad.

Why have social media that you don't expect people to look at?

No $500 soup for you!

Unreasonable is right, because unless they ask you for your usernames when you make the reservation there's no guarantee that they're even researching the right person.

What kind of privacy violation is involved when you post shit online so people can look at it, and then....you know....people look at it?

Even reading the second half of the summary was sufficient to understand that.

In my case I don't have a social media presence and am not prepared to shell out $500 * for a meal so it's "other people's lives".

* - $500 US, I've been to Jamaica and (years previously) Hong Kong. 500 of their dollars would be more acceptable.

Quite frankly, I do believe this is sensationalism that has in fact gone wrong. The sensationalism of narcissism.

If Michelin-rated restaurants didn’t have to do this in the past and they now feel obligated to, then it’s likely more a move to filter out certain unfavorable clientele they don’t wish to deal with.

The Michelin star, is what should be filling seats. If it IS and you’re forced as an owner/operator to do this extra step, then we know what the hell the real story is. They

Obviously giving away that kind of service to some 'deserving' clients is a pure marketing move. Its not like they are keeping it a secret they did that. In fact it would not surprise me if some agent of theirs put the idea for the article in the reporters ear and said and you know such and such would have good anecdote to fit into it. That is how the sausage is made in the hospitality industry.

You might get away with scamming them but, it would also be nice click bait story for some dining rag to bust y

There is nothing free about the meals, but if people post about their experiences when going out for a meal, including how good or bad the service was, what mistakes were made, that the food was "bland" as a reason for giving a lower review, then it makes sense that those providing a high end dining experience will want to know about this stuff to provide the best possible experience. For a $500 meal, you'd expect nothing less than EVERYTHING being superb, and that means making sure that things that bothe

> Having read the actual article, I would totally game their approach by making a fake social media profile and manipulating them to the greatest degree possible, for the purpose of getting the cost-free special treatment that they seem to want to provide.

I suspect, given they have been doing this for years, they are smart enough to weed out those trying to game the system; and if you drop enough money not really care because their system is working, i.e. getting you to spend lots of money at their restaurant. Case in point. I had a friend complain that some customers were gaming the loyalty system to get extra rewards points. When I asked him how much did that cost him per year, and he said a few hundred dollars; and how much has their spend gone up sinc

> it's people who work at a small business looking at the social media YOU chose to make public

Or the social media that someone with a similar name chose to make public. Whether or not it's Orwellian for a company to process personal data about me which I didn't provide directly to that company, it's objectionable because receiving the data from the subject is the strongest guarantee that it's actually data about that subject, and searches based on nothing more than the name can be a strong guarantee of error

> I assume they aren't asking soccer mom Karen how her kids game went.

No, they aren't.

But if say, Madonna's daughter comes in, they might well ask her about how the 'season' is going, as she spends time in various parts of the world that nepotism has granted her access to, or if one of Bill Gates' offspring comes in, to ask how things are with the foundation that their now-divorced parents ran, or they might use what they've read to specifically steer-clear of topics that could cause offense.