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RFID Not Just for Kids

Posted by samzenpus on from the big-brother-carney dept.

dritan writes "News.com is reporting that a theme park in Florida is tagging all members of your group when you enter. The park has kiosks throughout the park that let you find the other members of your group in "real time." The park's web site makes it seem that you will only be able to find members of your group, instead of seeing everyone in the park. Slashdot has previously reported about tagging kids with RFID in order to keep track of them."

4 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. But is it open to abuse? by Atrax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For a theme park, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. One of my least favorite things about theme parks is the potential to lose the rest of your party - resulting in much tedious wandering around. sure, you can call or SMS, but this seems like a genuinely good feature.

    Can the park individually track where you are? probably, but it's their right to do so - you've voluntarily entered their private property after all, and paid for the privilege. Can they track your preferences within the park? probably.

    will they store any personal identifiers? there's the rub. if their database links your RFID tag to the visa card number you paid with, THEN we're talking problems, and of course the article doesn't make it clear if this can happen or not...

    --
    Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
  2. Before you post: Hands up who has kids! by fantomas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to see posters in this discussion indicate if they have kids or not. I'm going to guess that those who post "not over my dead body/evil CIA tracking device/civil liberties being eroded by govt." are the single adults who've never lost a small child they are responsible for in a large, crowded public place.

  3. It's a wrist band! by PotatoHead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No big deal. Seems to me, one can just remove it, unless it is required for the attractions. (Still can break the tags, I guess.)

    Theme parks are all about control anyway. The better ones have good control which results in a good experience. (That is what you pay for.) The poor ones have not thought everything out resulting in problems. (Which is what you don't pay for.)

    It's a good feature. Pay cash if you don't want your prefs tracked to your identity.

    --
    Blogging because I can...
  4. Hide and seek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This could lead to a cool modern day version of hide and seek. One person is the fugitive, gets hmmm 10 minutes to 'escape' then the others have to use the rfid to track the fugitive down.
    Given that both the hunter and the hunted can see each others locations - but only when visiting the booths - then some interesting strategies could come out.
    What would be really cool would be if you could tell the park you're doing this and they limit access to the location data to something like 1 minute access every 5 minutes to prevent 'booth squatting'!
    Now I'd visit that park.