If you assumed the McDonald’s loyalty program was just a handy way to rack up points and score the odd deal on fries, the reality may be far more revealing.
One McDonald’s customer who asked the chain for a copy of the personal data it had collected on him received a remarkable 515-page file charting his ordering history, spending behavior and even forecasts of what he might buy in the future.
The extensive data report was obtained by Wired journalist Reece Rogers, based in California, after he decided to find out just how much information McDonald’s was gathering through its rewards app and loyalty program.
What landed in his hands went well beyond a basic receipt trail of Big Macs, burgers and fries.
The McDonald’s dossier contained a detailed record of his transactions, loyalty points, promotional offers and app activity, along with algorithm-driven predictions about how he was likely to behave as a customer.
One of the more eye-catching details was the company’s projection that Rogers would visit McDonald’s 2.16 times over the next six weeks, spend an average of $13.49 per order and generate an estimated total spend of $29.15.
The system also assigned him a “customer attrition likelihood” score of zero, indicating it saw virtually no risk that he would stop purchasing from the Golden Arches.
According to the predictions, his most likely next purchase was a Large Diet Coke, followed by a Spicy Snack Wrap, The Grinch McShaker Fry Large, a Double Cheeseburger and Ramyeon McShaker Fries Large.
Wired journalist Reece Rogers, requested a copy of the personal information held on him by McDonald’s. He was sent a staggering 515-page report detailing his eating habits, spending patterns and even predictions about what he is likely to buy next
It even classified his eating habits into oddly specific categories including ‘Food-Led Afternoon Snack’ and ‘On the Go Lunch in a Rush.’
McDonald’s also identified his most frequently visited geographic locations and used historical transactions to determine which products and categories it considered most relevant to him.
Rogers’ experience has raised fresh questions about just how much consumers understand when they sign up for loyalty schemes – particularly as retailers increasingly use algorithms to predict what customers will buy.
Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, described McDonald’s approach as ‘commercial surveillance,’ while privacy experts told Wired that the scale of the report may be startling but that this type of customer profiling is increasingly common among major companies operating loyalty programs.
Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and director of its CyLab Security and Privacy Institute, said the 500-plus-page report was ‘kind of a wake-up call,’ but warned that the information was not presented in a way most consumers would easily understand.
The concern is not necessarily that McDonald’s knows someone likes a Big Mac or orders a Diet Coke.
It is the accumulation of hundreds of seemingly harmless pieces of information – and what a company can infer when they are combined.
Ari Ezra Waldman, a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, said that while an individual purchase might not be particularly private, the aggregation and processing of information could reveal much more about a person’s behavior.
Rogers’ experience has raised fresh questions about just how much consumers understand when they sign up for loyalty schemes – particularly as retailers increasingly use algorithms to predict what customers will buy
The data collected can include when and where customers order, what they buy, how frequently they visit and how they respond to promotions.
In Rogers’ case, the report even contained records of his participation in McDonald’s Monopoly promotions, including when he scanned codes and what prizes he received.
McDonald’s says the information is collected for a more personalized customer experience rather than simply to monitor customers.
‘Like many digital loyalty programs, we use information such as past purchases to provide a more engaging, personal customer experience – like delivering the most relevant deals, offers and messages,’ a McDonald’s spokesperson told WIRED.
The company also said customers have privacy choices available to them under its privacy statement and that it takes data privacy and security seriously.
But the revelation has sparked plenty of debate online, with Reddit users divided over whether the dossier is genuinely creepy or simply what anyone should expect from a modern loyalty program.
On the r/fastfood subreddit, one commenter argued: ‘Why would you think McDonald’s isn’t keeping track of your purchases?’
Another said the information was actually less invasive than expected, given the amount of data modern companies can potentially collect.
McDonald’s says the information is collected for a more personalised customer experience rather than simply to monitor customers
Others were more concerned, with one Reddit user warning that the widespread collection of customer data could eventually facilitate ‘dynamic pricing’ and increasingly personalised attempts to extract money from shoppers.
Some users also pointed out the irony of McDonald’s algorithm predicting future purchases based largely on past behaviour.
‘So McDs spends a bucket of money on apps, sophisticated algorithms, and data tracking to predict I will order a Quarter Pounder with cheese because that’s what I’ve ordered every time for the last five years,’ one commenter wrote.
Another Reddit thread summed up the more sceptical view: the report sounds sinister because of the 515-page figure, but much of the material is essentially a detailed record of purchases and loyalty activity.
That distinction may be important. The most dramatic part of the story is not necessarily that McDonald’s knows a customer likes fries.
It is that modern loyalty systems can turn years of ordinary purchases into a detailed behavioural profile – and then use that profile to make predictions about what the customer will do next.
Rogers ultimately returned to McDonald’s Privacy Rights Center and requested that his stored information be deleted.
He also decided to stop eating at the chain, partly because he wanted to prove the algorithm wrong.
Whether he succeeds may be the ultimate test of McDonald’s prediction: can a customer really break free from the profile the algorithm has built for them?
