McDonald’s installs phone cleaning devices.

The systems operate on the basis of ultraviolet technology.

These systems, powered by ultraviolet technology, destroy up to 99.9% of germs within 30 seconds while customers wash their hands.

  • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.worldEnglish
    183·
    11 months ago

    So im no tech expert but a couple issues i see off the bat:

    • relying on a mechanism to pull in and spit out your phone seems ripe for a failure where the phone gets jammed/caught/sterliser breaks mid-operation and your phone is stuck. Maybe instead have a shelf that you put you phone on and then a cover just swings/drops over it but you can physically just lift the cover up to remove the phone.
    • entry slot is in the surface of the bench, directly next to the sink, where any overflow or splashing will have water drop directly down into steriliser and phone.
    • having a device in a public place (with no cameras, because bathroom) is a perfect place for someone malicious to affix a NFC (or similar tech) scanner to read data from/send data to your phone.
    • d3Xt3r@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      IT guy here, the NFC thing isn’t really a concern (NFC doesn’t work that way) or for that matter, any other wireless technology, as it’ll need to authenticate with your phone somehow. If you can somehow simply scan data from a phone without any form of authentication, that would be a massive security hole - something that would be patched by the vendors real quick. Also, if something like that were possible then the TSA/FBI wouldn’t have any issues pulling data from locked phones. Think of all the times you’ve had to put your phone thru the xray machines at the airports. Also see the case of FBI vs Apple for instance.

      The other issues you’ve mentioned are valid though. Heck my Galaxy Fold won’t even fit in that slot.

      • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I just thought that i can use contactless pay with my phone if its unlocked just by tapping the eftpos machine but i suppose people wouldnt be putting their phones in there unlocked generally.