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Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

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Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#51

Post by reactordev »

The sourced ingredients are indeed regional. The menu is regional as well. The website is built on top of their mobile ordering platform. The mobile ordering platform requires your location to be able to route your order to the “correct” McDonald’s. This is done via requesting your location from Google or via location services within the mobile app.

This platform is used by a lot of different QSRs. Or Quick Service Restaurants. Dunkin, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Checkers, etc.

I know this because I built the platform.

The biggest hurdle to the platform was delivering your order to the store “just-in-time” for it to be hot and ready when you get there.

Checkout CardFREE. It’s been a decade but they are still delivering value. The VP of Engineering was a new hire junior engineer when I was there.

http://www.cardfree.com

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#53

Post by phpisthebest »

asu_thomas wrote: post #46
stefan_ wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a nice idea, as if these nutrition facts are super specialized to your precise McDonalds location, and don't actually ya know come down to how much the kid in the back of the kitchen is using the salt shaker. People don't actually believe these are anything more than averages with huge error bars right?

HN is full of propagandized technologists who have yet to realize how few of the world's problems are technical, and how approximately all of them are political. I'm sure there are better essays with similar value, but the one that comes to mind is Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology : https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil394/The%20Quest...

I disagree, I think most people here understand the problems are political they just not understand that the problem was CREATED by the politics, and instead believe the solution to the problem is political.

They refuse to believe that government thus politics is the problem, not the solution

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#54

Post by gumby »

ergocoder wrote: post #52
cf100clunk wrote: post #3

Just a guess, but maybe its because there are different sources of the chicken, by region?

Damn, McDonald cares this much to provide accurate precise nutrition by geo?

It may be a legal requirement.

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#55

Post by HelloImSteven »

zagrebian wrote: post #42
sp332 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the script actually getting your location data though?

So the website asks Google for the user’s location, and it all happens transparently without the user’s knowledge? I’m not sure if I’d like that.

Not saying it's right, but this is pretty standard practice -- it's likely mentioned in their privacy policy somewhere.

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#56

Post by bfdm »

reactordev wrote: post #51

The sourced ingredients are indeed regional. The menu is regional as well. The website is built on top of their mobile ordering platform. The mobile ordering platform requires your location to be able to route your order to the “correct” McDonald’s. This is done via requesting your location from Google or via location services within the mobile app. This platform is used by a lot of different QSRs. Or Quick Service R…

Interesting! But also really speaks to the need for a browser setting for very coarse location without requiring user entry.

Eg, I always block location API access, and sites often have poor fallback UI for entry.

If it'd let me, I'd be setting my browser to always report "Toronto, Ontario" and auto-deny location requests.

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#57

Post by [deleted] »

reactordev wrote: post #51

The sourced ingredients are indeed regional. The menu is regional as well. The website is built on top of their mobile ordering platform. The mobile ordering platform requires your location to be able to route your order to the “correct” McDonald’s. This is done via requesting your location from Google or via location services within the mobile app. This platform is used by a lot of different QSRs. Or Quick Service R…

[deleted]

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#58

Post by zagrebian »

HelloImSteven wrote: post #55
zagrebian wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the website asks Google for the user’s location, and it all happens transparently without the user’s knowledge? I’m not sure if I’d like that.

Not saying it's right, but this is pretty standard practice -- it's likely mentioned in their privacy policy somewhere.

If I understand “total cookie protection” in Firefox correctly, this shouldn’t even be possible. When the website makes a request to Google, the user’s Google cookie is not included in the request, so Google does not know which user it is. All that Google can do is try to determine the user’s approximate location from their IP address.

edit: I asked Bard about this, and it told me that websites can get the approx. location of their visitors via the Google Geolocation API:

> To use the Google Geolocation API, a website must first obtain a Google Maps API key. Once they have a key, they can add the following code to their website:

    
    
      function getGeolocation() {
        var location = navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition();
        if (location) {
          var lat = location.latitude;
          var lng = location.longitude;
          // Do something with the location information.
        }
      }

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#59

Post by bamnet »

zagrebian wrote: post #42
sp332 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the script actually getting your location data though?

So the website asks Google for the user’s location, and it all happens transparently without the user’s knowledge? I’m not sure if I’d like that.

This isn't how it works. The Google Maps API doesn't know where users are.

Instead, it's probably being used for an autocomplete widget to help users type in an address.

Re: Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com

#60

Post by gabereiser »

bfdm wrote: post #56
reactordev wrote: post #51

The sourced ingredients are indeed regional. The menu is regional as well. The website is built on top of their mobile ordering platform. The mobile ordering platform requires your location to be able to route your order to the “correct” McDonald’s. This is done via requesting your location from Google or via location services within the mobile app. This platform is used by a lot of different QSRs. Or Quick Service R…

Interesting! But also really speaks to the need for a browser setting for very coarse location without requiring user entry. Eg, I always block location API access, and sites often have poor fallback UI for entry. If it'd let me, I'd be setting my browser to always report "Toronto, Ontario" and auto-deny location requests.

That ship has sailed. Location data is vital to a lot of internet services now. GeoIP fencing is one thing but location fencing is a tech that is being used by every major government (despite them outcrying privacy concerns).

I wish it wasn’t like this but until the open web becomes the “transparent” web, the snooping, spying, logging, graph-identity-building, MarTech driven, web will continue to go towards walled gardens and deanonymizing the internet.

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