McDonald’s is warning customers who signed up for promotions or registered at any of its online sites that their e-mail address has been compromised by an unauthorized third party.
The customer name, postal address, phone number, birth date, gender, and information about promotional preferences may also have been exposed, the company said in an FAQ on its Web site. Social Security numbers were not included in the database, the company said.
The data was managed by an e-mail database management firm hired by Arc Worldwide, a “longtime business partner” of McDonald’s, according to a recorded message on the company’s toll-free number. The unnamed database management firm’s computer systems were improperly accessed by a third party, McDonald’s said.
They lost our email? Can we get some free fries??
If my health care insurance company finds out about my preference for big macs, may I sue?
I use no loyalty cards, ever. Unless I give them phony info. I have noticed some places are starting to back off on them because some people are waking up. A store manager recently tried to push one on me and laughed when I said I didn’t want them tracking my purchases. We don’t do that…he says.
Even when you get coupons in your mailbox for things you regularly purchase. I guess it’s some form of magic.
I remember the good old days when we only had to worry about Klaus Fuchs.
Come to McDonald’s and eat our cardboard flavored buns, our meat-scented patties, our trans-fat fried Franken-potato substitutes, all filled with salty goodness.
Stop buying that shit.
It clogs your arteries, makes you obese because your body can’t digest it, leaves you still hungry BY DESIGN, raises your blood pressure…
Seriously, you might as well eat a cigarette and wash it down with a Mason jar full of pesticide.
I wonder WHY, I dont like filling out info on sites, that say FREE..
“we will send you specials if we can HAVE YOUR INFO”
Then comes this EXCUSE…”OOPS we lost it”..
NOW think hard..what would it take for a site to LOOSE your info(not really) then use it to SELL INFO, to corps for GOOD MONEY??
Seriously, you might as well eat a cigarette and wash it down with a Mason jar full of pesticide.
As if today’s “fresh chicken” and a bottle of Jack are any worse. lol
Heh, McD was a great job when I was in college…I always had free dinner. And probably could have made a fortune had I accepted their offer to quit tech school and go to Hamburger U. (dammit…)
McD once famously claimed that at some point 25% of all Americans had worked under the golden arches.
How many of YOU worked there at least one time?
Not once. But i have worked at some other less glamorous places.
You can find almost anyone’s SSN, full name, address, etc online already so what’s the big deal? I was surprised when I looked up the obituary for a friend, who died a couple years ago, I found his name in dozens of online records that show his date of death, his family members, his SSN, and where he lived. Getting someone’s email address is easy enough too. There are websites if you sign up it will show a person’s entire criminal record and where they have lived in the past and where they live now and their phone numbers. Unless you were born and didn’t get a birth certificate then your info is out there.
Might have to get the hamburglar on it.
#1, Far too special for me. The photo will help to ensure I never patronize a McDonald’s again.
#5, No more cool aid for you. Obviously if you can’t digest something it won’t make you obese, although it may kill you otherwise.
#8, I’ve never had to stoop that low. Cooked at Howard Johnson’s and managed a Sizzler.
When are we going to see class action lawsuits against companies that let our private information get stolen?
Hitting them for big $millions is the only way to get these companies to take security seriously.
All the histrionics about McD’s food aside (it is getting tiresome), why in the world would they even WANT to collect Social Security numbers? (More importantly, why would any sane person GIVE it to them?) I can understand collecting email addresses and, to some extent, physical addresses so they can advertise to you. But why SSNs?
#14 Because the SSN makes it easier to identify specific people when the database is ‘leaked’ to the insurance companies, no doubt in exchange for some under the table deal. Cheaper insurance for their serfs, paper bags full of cash, hot and cold running hookers and blow. Whatever.
Oops! So sorry we leaked your info!
Of course, they could also sell them elsewhere. That info is valuable! I am always skeptical of ‘accidental’ leaks when intentional data sales are so damn lucrative.
#13 “Hitting them for big $millions is the only way to get these companies to take security seriously.”
Even that might not work, when McDonalds can get an under the table bail out without the bio-people even being told till its too late.
http://tinyurl.com/2939moe
However, in this case McD is claiming that only the customer database was leaked. They are also claiming that “The database did not contain Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers or any sensitive financial information, since McDonald’s did not collect this information”. I’m sure that McDonalds does correlate customers with credit cards, and by location, because this marketing information is invaluable for advertising purposes. I’m also sure it helps in just in time stocking of the restaurants. But it’s not in this database, maybe. There is no real transparency so who knows?
# 16 Aaron Fown said, “since McDonald’s did not collect this information”
Thank you Aaron. I guess I should have RTFA. The clip above was misleading when it stated the SSNs were not in the database. That intimates they were collected but not in the hacked DB.
Still, I think you’ve been listening to too much Alex Jones or Adam Curry. (As Thailanders are wont to say: “same, same.”) Sort of like McD’s food, conspiracies should be consumed in moderation.