McDonald's, the residue of American empire

Walking down the cobblestoned streets of Antigua, Guatemala, I looked at the sandy red roofs of the Spanish colonial-style houses. I watched stray dogs grovel on the streets as motorcycles drove by and the vendors sold freshly cut mango and passion fruit. I was a passing American foreigner trying to make sense of what I saw before me. The looming Volcán de Agua in the distance was a reminder that I was in a different world than the small-town suburbs of New Jersey where I grew up. But as I neared the community supermarket on Poniente Street, something familiar caught my eye: a clear set of golden arches on a dark brown sign hanging on a speckled red wall. It was a McDonald’s.

“Look at how many plants and trees and flowers they’re growing inside,” my Spanish teacher-turned-guide said as we watched customers order and pick up their food. “There’s even a large fountain for children to throw coins in and for families to sit around.” She was right. Gleaming in the sunlight, the McDonald’s fountain was the centrepiece of what looked like a miniature park. A life-size statue of Ronald McDonald sat on a bench next to the fountain looking over an outdoor plaza. “This may be the most lavish place in Antigua,” she concluded. There was a hint of disbelief in her voice, as though something wasn’t quite right. And yet her tone didn’t betray any cynicism or exasperation.

American reviewers on Trip Advisor seemed to agree with my teacher’s assessment, but not her tone. “The Most Beautiful McDonald’s in the World,” read one commentator’s proud title. Others called it a “hidden gem” and “a little bit of paradise for Antigua” with a “beautiful atmosphere and regular hamburgers.” A New York City visitor wrote that “if this place was named anything else, it would be in every guide book.”

McDonald’s wasn’t the only American fast food establishment on Poniente Street. Opposite the Golden Arches was a Little Caesar’s Pizza, and further up the road, a Burger King with all the same features. All three teemed with costumers – American and Guatemalan alike – sometimes trailing out of the front door. Indeed, Guatemala appeared as though it really had become “America’s backyard,” to borrow the lexicon of the US policymakers who plotted the 1954 coup in the country.
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McDonald's asks users to update app after data leak scare

McDonald’s has asked users of its McDelivery service in India to update the app on their smartphones as a precaution, after a blog alleged that personal data of 2.2 million customers could have been leaked due to a vulnerability.

"We would like to inform our users that our website and app do not store any sensitive financial data of the users like credit card details, wallets passwords or bank account information,” said a McDonald’s India spokesperson.

Data security firm Fallible in a post on popular blogging platform Medium alleged that it had found the vulnerability in McDonald’s app, and despite receiving an acknowledgement from the company the issue was not fixed for over a month.

The post said information such as names, phone numbers, email ids, addresses, home coordinates and links to social handles of users of the McDelivery app were vulnerable to leak. Fallible traced the vulnerability to the presence of an “unprotected publicly accessible API endpoint” that could be used to access the user information.

“The lack of strong data protection and privacy laws or penalties in India, unlike the European Union, United States or Singapore has led to companies ignoring user data protection,” read the post by Fallible.

Fallible claims it contacted McDonald’s on February 7 regarding the vulnerability, and while it got an acknowledgement from a senior IT manager on February 13, the issue still was not fixed. The company followed the responsible disclosure policy, but upon seeing that the issue was not fixed decided to finally make the news public. (READ MORE)