A McDonald's customer was astonished to receive a 515-page report detailing his personal eating habits, spending patterns, and even algorithmic predictions about his future orders.
Wired journalist Reece Rogers requested his data from the fast-food company out of curiosity regarding the information gathered through its loyalty program. The report he received included a comprehensive history of his transactions, loyalty points, offers, and interactions with the McDonald's app. It also contained algorithmically generated forecasts of his behavior.
Among the predictions, McDonald's estimated that Rogers would visit its restaurants 2.16 times over the following six weeks, spending an average of $13.49 per order and a total of $29.15. The system also assigned him a 'customer attrition likelihood' score of zero, indicating a low probability of him ceasing to patronize the chain. The report identified his most frequently visited geographic locations and used historical transactions to determine the products most relevant to him.
Notable predicted purchases included a Large Diet Coke, followed by a Spicy Snack Wrap, The Grinch McShaker Fry Large, Double Cheeseburger, and Ramyeon McShaker Fries Large. His eating habits were categorized into specific labels such as 'Food-Led Afternoon Snack' and 'On the Go Lunch in a Rush.'
Privacy experts have noted that while the scale of the report may be surprising, this type of customer profiling is becoming increasingly common among companies with loyalty programs. Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, characterized McDonald's approach as 'commercial surveillance.' Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, described the report as a 'wake-up call,' warning that consumers may not easily understand the presented information.
The concern lies not just in McDonald's knowing a customer's preferences but in the accumulation of data points and the inferences that can be drawn when combined. Ari Ezra Waldman, a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, explained that while individual purchases might seem innocuous, the aggregation and processing of this information can reveal significant insights into a person's behavior. Data collected can encompass when and where customers order, their purchase history, visit frequency, and responses to promotions. Rogers' report even included details of his participation in McDonald's Monopoly promotions.
A McDonald's spokesperson stated that the information is collected to provide a more personalized customer experience, offering relevant deals, offers, and messages, rather than for surveillance. The company also affirmed that customers have privacy choices available and that it takes data privacy and security seriously.
The revelation has sparked debate online, with some users viewing the dossier as intrusive and others considering it a predictable outcome of modern loyalty programs. Some expressed concerns that such data collection could lead to dynamic pricing and targeted attempts to increase consumer spending. Rogers eventually requested that his stored information be deleted and decided to cease patronizing McDonald's, partly to challenge the algorithm's predictions.