Investigating University QR Code Interactions

Although engaging with Quick Response (QR) codes presents a security risk, little observational data exists exploring the impact of informational cues on engagement. While naturalistic observations of on and off-campus QR code engagement by Vidas et al. (2013) demonstrated that curiosity instead of informational-driven needs motivate engagement, it seems informational cues should play a role in security-based decisions. Over a decade later, our study investigates naturalistic engagement with QR codes on campus with a focus on flyer informational cues. The flyers were placed in busy campus areas and regularly checked for visibility by research assistants. We captured the number of users engaging with the QR code by flyer type (i.e., blank, university logo only, phishing job ad). Study participants were asked to complete a brief survey sharing their security experience, motivations, and predicted future behavior. Our flyer engagement was low, similar to Vidas et al. (2013), particularly considering the size of our campus student population. We showed that the engagement across the flyer types increased as informational cues increased. It is encouraging to see low engagement, given these suspicious flyers. This shift towards information seeking over simple curiosity most likely reflects users’ greater awareness of QRishing attacks.