When a journalist asked McDonald’s for a copy of his personal data that had been from the fast food giant’s loyalty program he got way more than he expected. Instead of a few nuggets (McNuggets?) of information about him, he was shocked to learn the McDonald’s loyalty app had actually created a 515-page data file filled with information and predictions about him.
Included in the dossier were deep computational predictions regarding his future behavior, eating patterns, brand loyalty, what he would buy next, when and where he was most likely to visit, and the conclusion that he would never stop returning to McDonald’s.
Every time you open the app, McDonald’s is collecting data on you
The journalist, Reece Rogers of Wired, easily obtained the file because, as a California resident, he has the legal right to access the data a company stores about him under California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Additionally, McDonald’s has a special Privacy Rights Center where patrons may seek access to the information the corporation has gathered over the years and how it uses it.
“Much of my data report contains a detailed account of past McDonald’s transactions as well as offers the fast-food company sent me and how many loyalty points I accumulated,” Rogers wrote. “Essentially, every time I opened up the app to grab a bite to eat, it created a detailed record about when, where, and what I purchased. The log was even more thorough than I anticipated, including a record of every time I’ve scanned a code as part of its returning Monopoly sweepstakes along with the prize I received.”
The report got very specific in its predictions, too. The company predicted how often he would visit in the next six weeks (2.16 times), how much money he would spend on average ($13.49), and how much he would spend in total ($29.15).
McDonald’s is using all of this data on its customers to build an AI platform
“McDonald’s secret sauce is really commercial surveillance,” Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, a group that advocates for consumer protections, told Rogers.
He’s not wrong. Last week, during its second-quarter earnings call, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski reported that the company has nearly completed combining behavioral purchase data from 220 million consumers into a single worldwide repository to develop an artificial intelligence platform.
“With all our data soon to be pooled in a global data lake, we’ll also be well positioned to capitalize on the new opportunities afforded by artificial intelligence,” Tech Times reports Kempczinski said.