Privacy Market: McDonald’s App Built 515‑Page Predictive Dossier

Journalist Reece Rogers used a California privacy law request to obtain his user data from McDonald’s and received a 515‑page dossier containing detailed predictive models. The document included forecasts for visit frequency and average spend over the next six weeks, a churn probability (reported as zero for Rogers), internal customer segment labels like “Food‑Led Afternoon Snack” and “On the Go Lunch in a Rush,” product preferences (e.g., large Diet Coke) and logged scanned Monopoly codes. McDonald’s said the data processing is used to personalize customer experiences, while privacy experts called the practice intrusive “commercial surveillance.” The Wired author ultimately used the legal right to request deletion and had his profile removed. The story spurred public discussion on Reddit and criticism from privacy researchers and consumer‑privacy advocates.