August 17, 2026, 10:22 am | Read time: 2 minutes
The McDonald’s app has become a daily tool for many customers. It allows for redeeming coupons, collecting loyalty points, and ordering before visiting the restaurant. At the same time, it generates a significant amount of usage data. A case from the U.S. shows how extensive data collection can be.
Extensive Data Collection with App Usage
The focus is on Wired author Reece Rogers. As a California resident, he exercised his data protection rights and requested the data McDonald’s had stored about him.
The response was 515 pages long. It included orders, loyalty points, offers, and information about when and where purchases had taken place.
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System Predicts Customer Behavior
According to the report, the analysis was not limited to past activities. The system also calculated expected user behavior. It predicted that Rogers would make a purchase a little more than twice in the next six weeks, spending an average of $13.49 per order.
Additionally, the profile assigned him certain eating habits. A large Diet Coke was noted as a particular preference. The risk of him leaving as a customer was also calculated.
McDonald’s describes the use of data to “Wired” much more cautiously. According to the company, past purchases are mainly used to display more suitable offers, deals, and messages.
Situation for Users in Germany
In Germany, McDonald’s also creates customer profiles. This requires appropriate consent. The app usage, orders, bonus points, favorites, and redeemed coupons are among the data evaluated.
Based on this data, the company claims to identify customer preferences, assign them to specific groups, and automatically display suitable offers. However, the case known in the U.S. cannot be directly applied to Germany. Here, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies.
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Users can request information about stored data, revoke consent for analysis and personalization, and under certain conditions, request data deletion. However, it remains unclear whether McDonald’s in Germany also makes predictions about future customer behavior. According to the report, the data protection notices for Germany do not indicate whether the company predicts future visits, spending, or potential customer attrition.