Ryan MacMillan

The latest development in the inexorable convergence of all technologies into a single, faintly sinister biotech wetware unit that we will likely have implanted into our retinas by unfeeling bureaucrats at the “Human Upgrade Center” is the news from Japan that shortly you will be able to pay for your Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets using your cellphone.

Naturally, this was merely a matter of time - if you can download music (and I’m reccomending Mika all this week) using your cellphone, then paying for repeatedly processed beef patties and highly unnatural yet hopelessly addictive french fries is not really a massive leap forward.

The thing is, it’s not about making things easy for customers (because, really, how tough is ordering a Big Mac?), it’s about monitoring them. Julie Ask over at Jupiter Analysts sees this as a marketing opportunity:

“It gives both McDonald’s and DoCoMo the opportunity to track consumers and their eating habits. Cash is more likely to be used in small transactions. Electronic payments will allow user behavior to be tracked and used for marketing purposes.”

Which is fine and all, but maybe you don’t want to be ‘tracked’ by a fastfood chain. Maybe you just want to pay for your burger with your cellphone and leave, safe in the knowledge that Ronald ‘most terrifying brand mascot ever’ MacDonald has no idea who you are or what your eating habits are. I don’t want to sound like a Luddite, but will it be possible, in the easy, breezy, digitally convergent future, to remain happily anonymous should one wish?