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McDonald's

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Founded on 15 May 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 23 May 2025).

McDonald's
Basic information
Founded 15 May 1940
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

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Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

  • User Freedom
  • User Privacy
  • Business Model
  • Market Control

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.


  • Privacy Concerns
  • Security Vulnerabilities
  • Holding security risks from public
  • False Advertising

Incidents

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This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the McDonald's category.

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 hackers 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

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Controversy Year Background Info Aftermath
McDonald's Libel trial 1997 McDonald's sued environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris over a fact-sheet that contained claims of McDonald's environmental practices, treatment of animals, nutritional information, marketing towards children, and labor practices. The trial spanned nearly ten 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

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References

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  1. ↑ "How Many McDonald's Restaurants Are There in the United States?". Locations Cloud. 20 January 2026. Archived from the original on 29 Nov 2025. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
  2. ↑ Charette, Robert (15 Dec 2010). "McDonald's Data Breach: Supersized?". IEEE.org. Archived from the original on 20 Apr 2024. Retrieved 13 Feb 2026.
  3. ↑ Constantin, Lucian (15 Dec 2010). "Leaks at Walgreens, McDonald's, deviantART and 100 Others Linked to Single Breach". SoftPedia. Archived from the original on 18 Dec 2010. Retrieved 13 Feb 2026.
  4. ↑ Karp, Gregory (13 Dec 2010). "Security breaches at three firms expose vulnerability of customer information". Los Angeles Time. Archived from the original on 13 Feb 2026. Retrieved 13 Feb 2026.
  5. ↑ "Hackers Steal Customer Data from McDonald's Partner Database". The Hacker News. 13 Dec 2010. Archived from the original on 13 Feb 2026. Retrieved 13 Feb 2026.
  6. ↑ "McDonald's says customer database hacked". The Mercury News. 13 Dec 2010. Archived from the original on 4 May 2017. Retrieved 13 Feb 2026.
  7. ↑ Lyngaas, Sean (11 Jun 2021). "McDonald's discloses hack of customer data in South Korea and Taiwan". Cyberscoop. Archived from the original on 14 Oct 2025. Retrieved 2 Feb 2026.
  8. ↑ "McDonald's Corp suffers data breach". Security Magazine. 14 June 2021. Archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025. Retrieved 2 Feb 2026.
  9. ↑ Sabet, Keumars (14 Jun 2021). "Personal data exposed in McDonald's data breach". ITpro. Archived from the original on 28 Apr 2025. Retrieved 1 Feb 2026.
  10. ↑ "McDonald's Korea fined $540k over data breach". QSR Media Asia. 5 Feb 2026. Archived from the original on 30 May 2024. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
  11. ↑ "McDonald's Korea fined 696 million won for breach of customers' personal data". Korea JoonAng Daily. 22 May 2023. Archived from the original on 6 Oct 2025. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
  12. ↑ "I'm Lovin' It: Exploiting McDonald's APIs to hijack deliveries and order food for a penny". EatonWorks. 19 Dec 2024. Archived from the original on 7 Nov 2025. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
  13. ↑ McKinney, Derek (23 Dec 2024). "McDonalds delivery customers put at risk by possible data breach". derektmckinney. Archived from the original on 15 September 2025. Retrieved 8 February 2026.
  14. ↑ Blakey, John (28 May 2021). "Carpenter v. McDonald's Corporation (1:21-cv-02906)". Court Listener. Archived from the original on 14 July 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  15. ↑ "McDonald's seeks ban to forbid confidential consumer information disclosure in voice data lawsuit". PogowasRight. 23 Mar 2023. Archived from the original on 29 Feb 2024. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
  16. ↑ Edwards, Jessy (7 Oct 2021). "McDelivery Customers Serve McDonald's Class Action Lawsuit After Data Breach". Top Class Action. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  17. ↑ Shaak, Erin (7 Oct 2021). "McDonald's Hit with Class Action Over April 2021 Data Breach [DISMISSED]". ClassAction. Archived from the original on 26 Apr 2025. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
  18. ↑ Cabbagestalk, Iesha (4 Jan 2026). "McDonald's Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over McRib Ingredients". Baller Alert. Archived from the original on 5 Jan 2026. Retrieved 5 Feb 2026.
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