A WIRED journalist obtained a 515-page record of data held by McDonald’s after using California privacy rights to request it. The dossier shows how the company’s loyalty app tracks purchases and engagement, then uses that information to predict future visits, spending and the likelihood that a customer will stop buying from it. The case illustrates how routine rewards programmes can enable extensive commercial profiling that many customers may not fully expect.

McDonald’s estimated the writer would visit 2.16 times and spend $29.15 over the following six weeks, with an average order of $13.49; it assigned a zero attrition likelihood, meaning it expected the customer to remain loyal. The report also logged locations, transaction histories, offers, loyalty points and Monopoly-code scans, and identified a large Diet Coke and chicken wraps as leading preferences. McDonald’s said it uses past purchases to provide relevant deals and messages, while privacy experts said such detailed tracking is common among large US loyalty schemes.