Fine dining restaurants researching guests to make their dinner unforgettable

Comparison to Social Credit / Credit Scores

• Some see a parallel to China’s social credit system or privatized “social credit scores”: profiling based on online behavior to shape real-world treatment.
• Others argue it’s fundamentally different: optional, consequence-free, and aimed at enhancing service rather than restricting access.
• A counterpoint warns that once the infrastructure exists, it could easily be repurposed for filtering or punishment (e.g., by politics, religion).

Privacy, Surveillance, and Slippery Slopes

• Many find the practice “creepy” or dystopian: a further erosion of already-limited privacy and an example of intimate moments becoming a managed, data-driven product.
• Concerns include potential future denial of service, political or ideological discrimination, and broader normalization of profiling across housing, jobs, and other services.
• Others dismiss extreme scenarios as speculative and note it’s based on publicly available data users chose to expose.

“Just Hospitality” vs Forced Intimacy

• Several commenters say this is modern “clienteling” and long-standing high-end hospitality: similar to maitre d’s, concierges, or Danny Meyer–style “collecting dots” via conversation.
• Supporters emphasize that guests generally love thoughtful surprises and that elite restaurants survive by delighting, not alienating, patrons.
• Critics counter that it feels like manufactured, one-sided intimacy—replacing genuine human connection with algorithmic flattery.

Public Social Media and Consent

• One camp argues: if posts are public, expecting privacy is unreasonable; reading them is like overhearing someone shouting in a public square.
• The other camp insists legality ≠ social acceptability: turning casual public expression into a detailed behavioral dossier crosses a social line, even if technically allowed.
• There’s debate over whether the burden should be on users to lock everything down or on businesses to exercise restraint.

Personal Discomfort and Unequal Experience

• Introverts and privacy-conscious people say such attention would be mortifying; some explicitly want to remain anonymous, not “special.”
• Worry that “researched” guests get extra magic while others receive merely baseline service, formalizing status tiers among diners.

Outrage, Headlines, and Broader Data Economy

• Several note the original “vetting” title primed readers for anger about exclusion, even though the article mainly describes personalization, not banning.
• This is cited as an example of “rage bait” and manufactured outrage, paralleling broader ad-tech profiling: many HN readers work in similar data-driven personalization, yet dislike it when targeted at themselves.