And even spookier: Tracking.

If items have unique (ie serialized) codes, then it's safe to assume that those codes will be recorded at purchase (since that's kind of the whole point), along with who bought them (yay discount cards and cashless society).

Now the contents of my pantry describe things like where I've been, when I was there, and/or who I hang out with. Fun times!

Even with cash and without discount cards: One random food label out of a recycling bin can relate all the way to photos of the purchaser's face at checkout, track them walking to their car, and see where that car went. This could happen months or years down the road.

Most of those pieces are already in-place: Our photos are already recorded alongside of our transaction details -- that's been going on in POS world for a long time. Tracking people to their vehicle is a function of Avigilon camera systems. Tracking the car itself is the primary purpose of Flock.

All that's missing right now is serialization records and a centralized database.

I'm sure that nobody will ever finish fitting these things together into a cohesive system and that nobody would ever use it with ill intent.

It probably would never happen anyway, since there's not a single retailer on Earth who would ever exchange this kind of data for an upgrade to their in-store surveillance systems and a monthly check. ;)

(And we still don't get directly-useful consumer information into or out of these new 2D barcodes. I love losing.)

I'm also expecting those "redirecting to your regional page" -> "404, can't find this product" situations.

It's possible to let the chat read the QR code and help the user with it.

Instead, the URL should lead to the actual label in vector format, and most elements of the design should be clickable links.