We respect the privacy of all users who use the McChat service that we make available from this website (“McChat”) and we are committed to ensuring a safe online experience when you use McChat
This privacy statement (“Privacy Statement”) explains our approach to any personal information that we might collect from you or which we have obtained about you from a third party and the purposes for which we process your personal information. This Privacy Statement also sets out your rights in respect of our processing of your personal information.
This Privacy Statement will inform you of the nature of the personal information about you that is processed by us and how you can request that we delete, update, transfer and/or provide you with access to it.
This Privacy Statement is intended to assist you in making informed decisions when using McChat. Please take a moment to read and understand it. Please note that it should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use
Please also note that this Privacy Statement only applies to the use of your personal information obtained by us. It does not apply to your personal information collected during your communications with third parties.
McChat is operated by McDonald’s Restaurants Limited, (“we”, “us” or “our“)
McDonald’s Restaurants Limited is the data controller responsible for your personal information and is registered at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office with registration number Z6584347:
McDonald’s Restaurants Limited is an English company with registered company number 1002769 and registered office at 11 – 59 High Road, London N2 8AW.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or want to exercise your rights set out in this Privacy Statement, please contact us via https://customerservices.mcdonalds.co.uk/hc/en-gb/ requests new or by post at:
McDonald's Restaurants Limited
Customer Services Department
East Finchley
London
N2 8AW
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
We collect and maintain personal information that you voluntarily submit to us during your application to join McChat and your subsequent use of McChat such as your age, postcode and name. We use this personal information to deliver McChat to you where your application to join is successful. This includes:
We also use your personal information described in this section for Customer Insight and Analysis and Marketing purposes. Please see the relevant sections below for further information about these purposes.
We will share your personal information with our third party research agency (PA Consulting Limited) and their third party community platform and software provider (STRAT7 Researchbods, a division of STRAT7 Limited (Researchbods)) who assist us with running McChat.
We ensure that your personal data is shared with PA Consulting and Researchbods in accordance with data protection laws and we have a contract with PA Consulting and PA Consulting have a contract with Researchbods which requires us and them to observe your data protection rights.
It is necessary for us to use your personal information to perform any contractual obligations that we may have with you to enable you to use McChat, including participating in any interactive features or prize draws offered as part of McChat.
From time to we will invite you to provide feedback about our products and services and in respect of the views and comments which you have already shared on McChat in the form of online surveys. We use this information to help us improve the quality of service provided by our staff and in our restaurants. We also use your feedback to assist with the selection of future products and services.
We also use your personal information described in this section for Customer Insight and Analysis and Marketing purposes. Please see the relevant sections below for further information about these purposes.
We use a third party service provider, PA Consulting Limited, to assist us with administering our surveys.
It is in our legitimate business interests to use the information you provide to us in your feedback for the purposes described above.
McChat uses electronic enquiry forms and e-mail to allow you to submit enquiries about our services. Your contact information may be requested in each case, together with details of other personal information that is relevant to your enquiry.
This information is used in order to enable us to respond to your requests.
This information is shared with our third party community platform and software provider, Researchbods, whose servers are located in the UK with back up servers in Dublin, Ireland.
It is in our legitimate interest to use your personal information in such a way to ensure that we provide the very best customer service we can to you.
We analyse the personal information you have voluntarily submitted to us in the course of your use of McChat, with other personal information that we observe about you during your use of McChat.
Where you have given your consent (where lawfully required), we use cookies to collect personal information from the computer hardware and software you use to access McChat, or from your mobile, to enable you to use McChat and in order that we may analyse how users use the website, in order that we may enhance their experience on McChat. Please see our cookie policy for further information.
We share your personal information with our third party community platform and software provider (Researchbods) which assists us with running McChat effectively and with our third party service provider, PA Consulting Limiteds to assist us with customer insight analytics.
Where your personal information is completely anonymised, we do not require a legal basis to use it as the information will no longer constitute personal information that is regulated under data protection laws. However, our collection and use of such anonymised personal information may be subject to other laws where your consent is required.
Where your personal information is not in an anonymous form and except where our use of certain cookies requires your consent (which we shall seek and on which we shall rely as a legal basis in those circumstances), we shall rely on our legitimate interest to use your personal information in such a way to ensure that we provide the best user experience on McChat and are able to undertake analysis to help form our business and product strategies as our legal basis for processing.
We use your personal information for the following business administration and legal compliance purposes:
We will share your personal information with professional advisers such as lawyers and accountants and/or governmental or regulatory authorities.
Where we use your personal information in connection with a business transition, to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights of third parties it is in our legitimate interest to do so. For all other purposes described in this section, it is our legal obligation to use your personal information to comply with any legal obligations imposed upon us such as a court order.
Where our use of your personal information requires your consent, you can provide such consent:
Please see our Cookie Policy to find out more about the cookies we use and how to manage these.
McChat contains links to third party websites and services. Please remember that when you use a link to go from McChat to another website or you request a service from a third party, this Privacy Statement no longer applies.
Your browsing and interaction on any other websites, or your dealings with any other third-party service provider, is subject to that website’s or third party service provider’s own rules and policies.
We do not monitor, control, or endorse the privacy practices of any third parties.
We encourage you to become familiar with the privacy practices of every website you visit or third party service provider that you deal with and to contact them if you have any questions about their respective privacy policies and practices.
This Privacy Statement applies solely to personal information collected by us through McChat and does not apply to these third party websites and third party service providers.
If you close your McChat account we shall delete all of the personal information that you submitted to McChat, except in the event that you consent separately to our retention of any particular personal information, for example where you have uploaded a video to McChat (or to a location directed by McChat) which contains your image, for use in future training programmes. We shall continue to retain any personal information that you have previously consented to being held by us for the purposes to which you have already consented unless you also ask us to delete this.
We will keep your personal information for a period of 6 months after you close your account or up to 30 days if you request the right to be forgotten.
We are committed to keeping the personal information you provide to us secure and we will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or alteration.
We have implemented information security procedures and technical measures to protect the personal information that we have under our control from:
All of our employees and data processors (i.e. those who process your personal information on our behalf, for the purposes listed above), who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal information, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the personal information of all users of McChat.
You have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you:
If you ask us, we’ll confirm whether we’re processing your personal information and, if so, provide you with a copy of that personal information (along with certain other details). If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.
If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you’re entitled to have it rectified. If we’ve shared your personal information with others in accordance with this privacy statement, we’ll let them know about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
You can ask us to delete or remove your personal information in some circumstances such as where we no longer need it or if you withdraw your consent (where applicable). If we’ve shared your personal information with others in accordance with this privacy statement, we’ll let them know about the erasure where possible. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
You can ask us to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances such as where you contest the accuracy of that personal information or you object to us processing it. It won’t stop us from storing your personal information though. We’ll tell you before we lift any restriction. If we’ve shared your personal information with others in accordance with this privacy statement, we’ll let them know about the restriction where it is possible for us to do so. If you ask us, where it is possible and lawful for us to do so, we’ll also tell you who we’ve shared your personal information with so that you can contact them directly.
You have the right, in certain circumstances, to obtain personal information you’ve provided us with (in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format) and to reuse it elsewhere or to ask us to transfer this to a third party of your choice.
You can ask us to stop processing your personal information, and we will do so, if we are:
You have the right not to be subject to a decision when it’s based on automatic processing, including profiling, if it produces a legal effect or similarly significantly affects you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us.
If we rely on your consent (or explicit consent) as our legal basis for processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
If you have a concern about any aspect of our privacy practices, including the way we’ve handled your personal information, you can report it to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (if you are based in the UK). You can find details about how to do this on the ICO website at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113. If you are based in Ireland you can report any concern to the Data Protection Commissioner, which is the Supervisory Authority in Ireland, by e-mailing info@dataprotection.ie.
To ensure that you are always aware of how we use your personal information we will update this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect any changes to our use of your personal information. We may also make changes as required to comply with changes in applicable law or regulatory requirements. We will notify you by e-mail of any significant changes. However, we encourage you to review this Privacy Statement periodically to be informed of how we use your personal information.