Linked: Creepy. McDonald’s Knows What You Want to Order Thanks to AI
Hmm, so do you trust McDonald’s to keep your license plate information safe, and thus also your location information?
“At some drive-throughs, McDonald’s has tested technology that can recognize license-plate numbers, allowing the company to tailor a list of suggested purchases to a customer’s previous orders, if the person agrees to sign away the data.
“You just grow to expect that in other parts of your life. Why should it be different when you’re ordering at McDonald’s?” said Daniel Henry, the chain’s chief information officer. “We don’t think food should be any different than what you buy on Amazon.””
Maybe the larger question is whether Daniel Henry is correct, have we grown to expect that sort of behavior from companies? Does the Amazon model work once we start pulling in offline information like license plates and locations?
For that matter, are we growing to expect that, or starting to grow very suspicious of it? I think there’s a growing concern over what Amazon, and others, are doing with all of that information. I’m not sure we need fast food restaurants storing that kind of information.
Then again, I generally get the same thing on every visit to a fast food restaurant, so there would be no reason to give them any data on my eating habits. They aren’t going to influence me.,
