Founded in May 15, 1940 by Richard and Maurie McDonald, McDonald's Corporation is an American fast food restaurant chain with a net worth of $230.52 billion and owning 36,500 stores across 100 countries.[1] Besides food services, McDonald's offers other services and product with their own AI assistant named Olivia, bug bounty hunter program (only in India), McDelivery, the McDonald's App, and its spinoff restaurant CosMc's (closed on May 23, 2025).
McDonald's
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1940-05-15 |
| Legal Structure | Public |
| Industry | Food |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/home.html |
McDonald's is part of several organizations and partnerships, like the National Restaurant Association, International Franchise Association and google cloud partnership.
Consumer-impact summary
- Privacy Concerns
- Security Vulnerabilities
- Holding security risks from public
- False Advertising
Incidents
| Controversy | Year | Background Info | Aftermath |
|---|---|---|---|
| McDonald's Japan Malware Attack | 2006 | On August 4,2006, McDonald's Japan ran a promotion that included MP3 Players as the prize for the 10,000 winners. The MP3 Player contain malware that steals passwords and login credentials of customers. | On August 7, McDonald's issued an public apology to any customers affected. The company offered a Web link that removes the malware and allowed winners to return their MP3 players for a free replacement. |
| McDonald's Customer Database Hack | 2010 | McDonald's advertisement partner Arc Worldwide, hired an email database management firm Silverpop Systems [2][3] that suffered a massive security breach, resulting in customers email addresses, names, phone numbers, and postal addresses being leaked. [4][5][6] McDonald's didn't report on the amount of customers affected. | The hacker's have not been caught. |
| McDonald's India Leak | 2017 | Reported by a cybersecurity firm Fallible, a vulnerability in McDelivery allowed leakage of 2.2 million customers information. | McDonald's responded with a public statement and applying a patch for the vulnerability. |
| McDonald's South Korea and Taiwan Hack | 2021 | McDonald's was hacked in Taiwan, US (though very minimal impact) and South Korea that included customers emails, phone numbers, and delivery addresses. Details for this lawsuits remain limited, however the company did report of it not being ransomware and collaborating with authorities on the issue. [7][8][9] | The hacker's have not been caught, as this is still an ongoing issue. |
| McDonald's fined for storing customer's data | 2023 | Hackers access personal data of 4.87 million customers due to McDonald's containing backup files of customers and not removing files after data retention period expired. [10][11] | McDonald's was fined 696 million wan ($532,110 ) |
| McDonald's India McDelivery Security Vulnerability | 2024 | An Security Researcher going by an alias Eaton, discovered an vulnerability that leaked costumers names, email addresses, phone numbers. vehicle numbers, profile pictures, and allowed tracking real-time location of their deliveries.[12][13] | McDonald's Fixed the issue on August 23. On November 13, through their bounty program, sent Eaton an $240 amazon gift-card. |
Lawsuits
| Controversy | Year | Background Info | Aftermath |
|---|---|---|---|
| McDonald's Libel trial | 1997 | McDonald's sued environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris over a factsheet that contained claims of McDonald's environmental practices, treatment of animals, nutritional information, marketing towards children, and labor practices. The Trial spanned nearly 10 years, resulting in it being the longest trial in British history. | McDonald's was found liable for false advertising, mistreatment of animals, and liable for some environmental damage. The Court found that several claims were defamatory, rewarding McDonald's £60,000 in damages. |
| McDonald's violation of Illinois data protection law | 2021 | On July 20. Carpenter filled a class action lawsuit against McDonald's for collection of customers voice prints without prior consent. McDonald's attempted to dismiss the claim, arguing any voice data collected didn't meet criteria for an voiceprint because it doesn't identify an individual, however the dismissal was denied. [14][15] | Still in progress |
| McDelivery orders Data Breach in South Korea | 2021 | Customers who placed an McDelivery order in South Korea were affected by an data breach that exposes customers’ addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. [16] [17] | Case was dropped, both agreed to cover their own cost, however settlement agreements are unknown. |
| McDonald's False Advertising of McRib Ingredients | 2025 | On December 23, Mcdonalds was sued for the product "McRib" not containing real rib meat. McDonald's responded by saying the product contains boneless pork mixed with barbecue sauce, onions, and pickles. [18] | Still in progress |
See also
References
- ↑ "How Many McDonald's Restaurants Are There in the United States?". Locations Cloud. 2026-01-20. Archived from the original on 29 Nov 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ Charette, Robert (2010-12-15). "McDonald's Data Breach: Supersized?". IEEE.org. Archived from the original on 20 Apr 2024. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
- ↑ Constantin, Lucian (2010-12-15). "Leaks at Walgreens, McDonald's, deviantART and 100 Others Linked to Single Breach". SoftPedia. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Karp, Gregory (2010-12-13). "Security breaches at three firms expose vulnerability of customer information". Los Angeles Time. Archived from the original on 13 Feb 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
- ↑ "Hackers Steal Customer Data from McDonald's Partner Database". The Hacker News. 2010-12-13. Archived from the original on 13 Feb 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
- ↑ "McDonald's says customer database hacked". The Mercury News. 2010-12-13. Archived from the original on 4 May 2017. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
- ↑ Lyngaas, Sean (2021-06-11). "McDonald's discloses hack of customer data in South Korea and Taiwan". Cyberscoop. Archived from the original on 14 Oct 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-02.
- ↑ "McDonald's Corp suffers data breach". Security Magazine. 2021-06-14. Archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-02.
- ↑ Sabet, Keumars (2021-06-14). "Personal data exposed in McDonald's data breach". ITpro. Archived from the original on 28 Apr 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
- ↑ "McDonald's Korea fined $540k over data breach". QSR Media Asia. 2026-02-05. Archived from the original on 30 May 2024. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ "McDonald's Korea fined 696 million won for breach of customers' personal data". Korea JoonAng Daily. 2023-05-22. Archived from the original on 6 Oct 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ "I'm Lovin' It: Exploiting McDonald's APIs to hijack deliveries and order food for a penny". EatonWorks. 2024-12-19. Archived from the original on 7 Nov 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-08.
- ↑ McKinney, Derek (2024-12-23). "McDonalds delivery customers put at risk by possible data breach". derektmckinney. Archived from the original on 15 Sep 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-08.
- ↑ Blakey, John (2021-05-28). "Carpenter v. McDonald's Corporation (1:21-cv-02906)". Court Listener. Archived from the original on 14 Jul 2024. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ "McDonald's seeks ban to forbid confidential consumer information disclosure in voice data lawsuit". PogowasRight. 2023-03-23. Archived from the original on 29 Feb 2024. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ Edwards, Jessy (2021-10-07). "McDelivery Customers Serve McDonald's Class Action Lawsuit After Data Breach". Top Class Action. Archived from the original on 10 Oct 2023. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ Shaak, Erin (2021-10-07). "McDonald's Hit with Class Action Over April 2021 Data Breach [DISMISSED]". ClassAction. Archived from the original on 26 Apr 2025. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ↑ Cabbagestalk, Iesha (2026-01-04). "McDonald's Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over McRib Ingredients". Baller Alert. Archived from the original on 5 Jan 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-05.