Applicant Privacy Statement
Thank you for your interest in employment with McDonald’s! This Privacy Statement (the “Statement”) applies to personal information McDonald’s Corporation, McDonald’s USA, LLC, and their U.S.-based subsidiaries and affiliates, including employees of company-owned restaurants (collectively referred to as “McDonald’s”) collect in connection with applications for employment with McDonald’s, including those submitted via our websites, mobile apps, or other digital interfaces.
This Statement applies to individuals who are applying for employment with McDonald’s within the United States. Please note this Statement does not apply to McDonald’s franchisees and applicants for employment with McDonald’s franchisees. The posting for the job you are applying to will tell you whether it is being offered by McDonald’s or by a franchisee. If you apply for employment with a franchisee, that franchisee uses your personal information pursuant to its own privacy practices. Please contact that franchisee to learn more about its privacy practices.
We collect the information you provide during the application process, which may include the following:
- Contact information, such as your name (first, middle, last), home address/country, telephone number and email address, your birthdate (MM/DD/YYYY), and your age;
- Your work experience (e.g., employment history, company, location and contact details, job title, start and end date, supervisor name), educational background (e.g., school/university, location, highest level of education, major area of study, graduation year, degree, GPA), professional certifications, relevant prior trainings or courses, confirmation of reliable transportation, language capabilities, your area/department/role of interest within McDonald’s, total compensation expectation, work schedule preferences, first possible start date, the fact that you might be subject to a non-compete, applicable termination/notice periods, restrictive covenant or any other agreement that might affect your ability to accept a position and work at McDonald's, references, letters of recommendation, interview notes, the source you heard about the job vacancy, and availabilities to schedule an in person interview;
- Volunteering experience, family members who work at McDonald’s and the nature of your relationship to them, your right to work in the United States and/or your selected location, and any limitations on your right to work associated with your employment sponsorship, if applicable;
- Optional demographic information that is not part of your application, such as gender, race/ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation;
- Information we need to provide you with an offer (e.g., start date, job title);
- Photo(s);
- Video recording of interviews and assessments of video interviews;
- Virtual and live communications (e.g., with our interactive chat bot assistants). Please note that conversations with our chatbot assistants are monitored and retained by us and our third party providers for our business purposes.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information collected in connection with your use of our websites, including, but not limited to, information collected automatically as part of your interaction with the application systems; electronic content produced or received by you using the application systems (including job applications, other documents, information, emails, and other electronic communications transmitted or received through the use of the application systems); information relating to your accounts held on the application systems, websites, or apps (including account profiles on websites or apps and data stored in relation to such accounts); and information received by McDonald’s if you sign into the application systems, websites, apps, or accounts using social media or other third party tools; and
- The results of other application-related assessments.
You may have the option to add attachments or further information (e.g., a CV or Resume, a cover letter or message, certifications or skills, language capabilities or a letter of recommendation) which might contain additional personal information. Such attachments and further information will be treated in the same way as other personal information you provide to us during the application process. We may collect certain additional information that is not part of your application, such as military and/or veteran status, your ability to perform expected physical requirements of the position for which you are applying, physical limitations or other medical or health-related workplace accommodations, the results of background screening searches including credit and criminal background checks, educational background checks, drug and alcohol testing, and other pre-employment screenings.
Our website may contain features that let you sign up to receive communications about future McDonald’s job openings, as well as communications about our brand. If you use sign up for these communications, you can opt-out of these communications at any time.
We use this information to assess your qualifications for employment and other related services during the application and recruitment stage. This includes contacting you after you have applied, contacting references that you have provided as well as potentially carrying out background checks. We may use applicant information for benchmarking, analyzing, and reporting on the diversity of candidate pools, individualized reporting and analytics of statistical information, and informing and developing our recruitment and other Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategies. We may also contact you about any other jobs we think may be of interest to you. We also may use your information to comply with any applicable legal obligations or applicable McDonald’s policies, record-keeping or reporting obligations as well as to establish, exercise or defend against any legal claims.
In order to carry out the application and recruitment process under this Statement, your information may be shared with McDonald’s employees such as your potential manager(s), members of the human resources team as well as other individuals within McDonald’s. Your information also may be shared with various third parties that assist us during the recruitment process. For example, we use third party service providers to collect your information as well as for other services such as carrying out background checks, work-related assessments or pre- employment screenings. We may also share information with third parties when we believe in good faith that the disclosure is required to comply with a court order, subpoena, warrant or legal process. We may also share your information in the event of a merger, acquisition, asset sale or other related transaction, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law or to protect the safety of our employees, the public or McDonald’s property.
For students, we may share information with your university in order to verify your application and/or employment status at your or your university’s request.
McDonald’s and our service providers and third party partners may monitor any use of or activity on our websites for our business purposes. This may include records of actions you take while using our websites, records of your sessions our sites, information you submit on our sites, or communications or information send through or using our sites. The cookies and similar technologies used on our websites (described below in the section titled “Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies”) may also collect these types of information. This information may be collected and retained by us and by our service providers and third party partners.
Additionally, if you engage with chatbots on our sites, your conversations with our chatbots may be retained by us and our service providers for our business purposes. This can include any interaction between you and our chatbots, information you input into the chatbot (including job applications), and the conversations you have with the chatbots.
If you do not consent to the monitoring described here, you should not use our websites.
If you chose a third party to submit your application for positions with McDonald’s or to fill out your application for you, we may receive information about you, which might contain additional personal information. Such information will be treated in the same way as other personal information you provide to us during the application process.
McDonald’s will retain the personal information that we process pursuant to this Statement for the duration of time necessary to assess your qualifications for employment, and for the period of time thereafter as provided in our retention policies. You may also elect to have your information remain with McDonald’s, for example, if you continue to maintain a career profile on one of our websites.
We use technical, physical, and organizational security measures designed to protect against unauthorized access, disclosure, damage, or loss of personal information. The collection, transmission and storage of information can never be guaranteed to be completely secure. However, we take steps designed to ensure that appropriate security safeguards are in place internally and with our third party service providers to protect your information.
We, and our vendors who provide services to us, may use cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies on our websites and mobile apps to collect information, enable certain functions, and protect the security of our websites and mobile apps.
Cookies and other Technologies
A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed onto an Internet user’s web browser or device and is used to remember and/or obtain information about the user.
A “web beacon” is a small object or image that is embedded into a web page, application, or email and is used to track activity. They are also sometimes referred to as pixels and tags.
Please note the following:
- You might be assigned a cookie when using our websites and mobile apps.
- We offer certain features that are available only through the use of cookies and other similar technologies.
- We may use both session (for the duration of your visit) and persistent (for the duration of a fixed period of time) cookies and other tracking technologies.
We may use cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies to collect information for the purposes listed below, or for any other purposes described in this Statement. We may also combine the information collected by these technologies with information we have collected about you by other means that are described in this Statement. We may use these technologies to:
- uniquely identify you or your device;
- allow you to access and use our websites and mobile apps, where without them, our websites and mobile apps may not work properly;
- further system security where appropriate;
- collect information for statistical purposes, in order to measure use of our websites and mobile apps;
- improve our products and services;
- help us monitor the performance (e.g., traffic, errors, page load time, popular sections, etc.) of our websites and mobile apps;
- remember you, for your convenience, when you visit our websites and mobile apps; and
- for other purposes described in the section of this Statement titled, “How we use your information.”
For example, we may use certain technologies to determine whether you have opened an e - mail or clicked on a link contained in an e-mail, and how you use the pages and content in our websites and mobile apps.
Use the options in your web browser if you do not wish to receive a cookie or if you wish to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. Click on the “Help” section of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. If you disable all cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of all the features available on a website.
Some web browsers may have a "Do Not Track" preference that transmits a "Do Not Track" header to the websites you visit with information indicating that you do not want your activity to be tracked. McDonald’s does not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed. We continue to review new technologies and may adopt a standard once one is created.
Where video is available on our online services, we may track the videos you view. You consent to our tracking of your video viewing through online services or third party social media as permitted by applicable law, or until you withdraw your consent.
Our websites and mobile apps may offer links to websites that are not run by us but by third parties. If you visit one of these linked websites, you should read the website’s privacy policy, terms and conditions, and their other policies. We are not responsible for the policies and practices of third parties. Any information you give to those organizations is dealt with under their privacy policy, terms and conditions, and other policies.
We may also have providers of other apps, tools, widgets and plug-ins on our online services, such as Facebook “Like” buttons, which may also use automated methods to collect information about how you use these features. These organizations may use your information in line with their own policies.
This part of our Statement applies to applicants to McDonald’s who reside in the State of California (whom we refer to below as “California applicants”).
Personal Information We Collect about California Applicants
We describe the personal information we have collected from California applicants in the twelve (12) months preceding the effective Date of this Statement in the part titled, “Information we collect and process” above. This information includes the following, which may or may not be part of your application, as specified in your application and this Statement.:
- Identifiers such as a real name; alias; postal, email and internet protocol (IP) addresses; online identifiers; and account name(s), date of birth, social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, user names, and any other similar identifiers.
- The following categories of personal information described in California Civil Code 1798.80(e): (1) the personal information listed in the preceding bullet point as “identifiers,” (2) physical characteristics or description, (3) telephone number, (4) educational background, (5) employment-related information and employment history and (6) medical information.
- Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, military and/or veteran, immigration, work permit status; age (40 years and older), the results of credit and criminal background checks, drug and alcohol testing and other screening procedures; and medical conditions if disclosed to us.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an Internet website, application, or advertisement. For more information, see the part
- titled “Information We Collect” and “Use of cookies and other technologies” above.
- Geolocation data - Our websites may ask permission to use your location to help you search for a job near you. If you provide permission, our websites may collect your location.
- Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information, such as video recordings of interviews, or records of your conversations or interactions with our virtual chatbot assistants.
- Professional or employment-related information, including your work experience (e.g., company, location and contact details, job title, start and end date, supervisor name), educational background (e.g., school/university, location, highest level of education, major area of study, graduation year, degree, GPA), professional certifications, language capabilities; your area/department/role of interest within McDonald’s, total compensation expectation, work schedule preferences, first possible start date, the fact that you might be subject to a non-compete, applicable termination/notice periods, restrictive covenant or any other agreement that might affect your ability to accept a position and work at McDonald's, references , letters of recommendation, interview notes, the source you heard about the job vacancy, and availabilities to schedule an in person interview.
- Education information, defined as information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99).
- Inferences drawn from (1) the information we collect when you visit our website or seek employment whether electronically, in writing or orally; (2) information we collect, including through third party suppliers, regarding content and other data posted on the Internet (such as data posted in social media or other public locations on the Internet); (3) information we collect from third party service providers such as those carrying out background checks, work-related assessments or pre-employment screenings; and (4) information collected automatically via our websites or mobile apps or which we purchase from third parties, in order to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, or aptitudes.
- Sensitive personal information as defined under applicable privacy laws, such as certain characteristics of protected classifications as identified above, and the government-issued ID numbers described herein.
We use the personal information we collect regarding California applicants for the purposes described in the section titled, “How we use your information” above.
California applicants may have the following rights, to the extent permitted by applicable law:
- A right to know the categories of personal information and/or the specific pieces of personal information McDonald’s may hold about you;
- A right to request that McDonald’s delete personal information it has collected from you;
- A right to request that McDonald’s correct inaccurate personal information about you;
- A right to opt-out of “sales” of personal information and sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising;
- A right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of the foregoing rights.
If you request to exercise any of the above rights, as required under applicable law, we must take steps to verify your request. To verify your request, you must provide the requested personal information. If we believe we need further information to verify your request as required by law, we may ask you to provide additional information to us. McDonald’s processes verified requests within the time period provided by law, subject to any exemptions or limitations provided for under applicable law.
You may request to exercise the rights to Know, to Delete, and to Correct personal information by:
- Visiting the McDonald’s Privacy Rights Center and submitting a request. Please make sure that you identify yourself as an “Applicant” when submitting the request.
- Calling us toll-free at 1-877-623-1955 (Press 5 for HR Consulting).
You can exercise the right to opt-out of “sale” of personal information, or of sharing personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, by clicking on Cookie Settings.
If permitted by law, you may designate an authorized agent to request any of the above rights on your behalf. Your agent may contact us as set forth herein. Even if you choose to use an agent, as permitted by law, we may require verification of the agent’s written authorization to act on your behalf, require you to confirm you have authorized the agent in writing to act on your behalf, or require you to verify your own identity.
Within the preceding 12 months, we have shared all or substantially all categories of personal information identified in this Statement for a business purpose. In the same period, McDonald’s has not sold personal information provided by California applicants in job applications or shared such for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined under California law. The cookies and similar technologies used on this site may share certain identifiers and information about your use of our sites with social media advertising and analytics partners, this may be considered a “sale” under California law and/or sharing of data for cross-context behavioral advertising. McDonald’s does not use or disclose California applicants’ sensitive personal information for purposes that, under applicable law, are subject to a “Right to Limit” the use or disclosure of sensitive personal information.
Additionally, McDonald’s will process opt-out requests submitted by an applicant’s opt-out preference signal as required by applicable law. The technical specifications of an applicant’s opt-out preference signal determine how we process such signals. For example, if an applicant installs opt-out preference technology on a browser, and the opt-out preference signal it sends is associated solely with a user’s browser, the opt-out will be applied to the browser. As of the “Last Updated” date of this Privacy Statement, our processing of opt-out preference signals can be considered “frictionless” under California law.
The following metrics relate to our handling of California rights requests received from all individuals in the U.S. who identified themselves as job applicants, current employees, or former employees in the period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.
Right to Know/Access
- Requests Received: 62
- Requests Completed: 62
- Requests Not Completed*: 0
- Median Number of Days to Complete: 7
Right to Delete
- Requests Received: 22
- Requests Completed: 22
- Requests Not Completed*: 0
- Median Number of Days to Complete: 7
Update Data
- Requests Received: 59
- Requests Completed: 59
- Requests Not Completed*: 0
- Median Number of Days to Complete: 6
There were no instances of partial completion by McDonald’s.
*Requests may not be completed due to factors such as inability to verify the identity of the requestor, the requestor is an applicant or employee of a franchisee, or because no personal information was found.
Notice to California Residents under 18 Years of Age
If you are a registered user of online services under the age of 18, and we have actual knowledge of your age, then under California law you may request and obtain removal of certain content or information you have posted on our online services. To do so, please contact us at the address, phone number or email address mentioned within this Statement. Please note that removal does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content. For example, removal may not be possible or permitted if another provision of law requires the content to be maintained, if it was posted or reposted by others, or if we paid compensation to you in exchange for the posting.
If you use assistive technology and the format of this Statement interferes with your ability to access information, please contact us at accessibility@us.mcd.com.
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to contact us for any other reason relating to our personal information practices, please feel free to contact us at contact.privacy@us.mcd.com.
This Statement is in effect as of the date noted at the top of the Statement. We may change this Statement from time to time. If we do, we will post the revised version here and change the “last updated date” (the date it applies from) at the top of the Statement. You should check here regularly for the most up-to-date version of the Statement.