McDonald’s being sued for £675 million by McFlurry machine hack inventors

dailystar.co.uk:

McDonald’s – as milkshake and McFlurry fans are all too aware – are more likely to be broken than working. There’s even a website called McBroken that tracks the fault in real-time.McDonald’s has had problems with the temperamental machinery for decades, seemingly unable to find a fix.But a team of hackers launched a startup to do just that.

In 2019 they created a small device – around the size of a mobile phone – that could fit inside the standard McD’s ice cream machine and send real-time feedback to a manager’s mobile phone showing what the exact problem was and how to fix it.But now, the hackers are suing McDonald's for $900m (around £673 million).Many relieved Maccy-D’s franchise owners bought the gadget, called Kytch, and restored one of the chain’s most popular items to the menu.One franchise owner said he had saved "easily thousands of dollars a month" after installing Kytch because it meant they sold a lot more milkshakes and spent far less on repairs.But in November 2020, the fast-food giant sent an email to every franchisee demanding that they remove Kytch from the McDonald’s-supplied machines immediately.The email claimed that Kytch invalidated the machines’ warranties and could be used to obtain "confidential information” about McDonald’s’ business.

It also alleged that the use of a Kytch could lead to “serious human injury”.The email ended with an offer to buy a new model of ice cream machine that incorporated very similar technology to Kytch.McDonald’s wrote: "Kytch’s software includes a remote operation function, and with this feature, we believe anyone cleaning, operating or repairing our shake machines (like restaurant crew members or maintenance technicians) could potentially be injured if the.