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Disney World Collecting Fingerprints
cvd6262 writes "Disney World is now requiring all visitors to have their index and middle fingers scanned to gain entrance to the park. This started for season pass holders, but is now required for everyone." From the article: "'I think it's a step in the wrong direction,' Civil Liberties Union spokesman George Crossley said. 'I think it is a step toward collection of personal information on people regardless of what Disney says.'"
With that aside, WHO CARES. You cannot be uniquely identified by your hand geometry, it simply reduces the chance that you are using someone elses pass.
They would do the finger scan, and if it didn't work the first time the attendant would usually just manually override the scanner and let you in without much hassle. Also, the person I was with and I have similiar hand sizes, and flip-flopped passes all week. It almost certainly isn't a fingerprint scanner, just a very rough check.
Additionally, it seemed that the biggest issue with the scanner was not getting your fingers all the way into the device. If they weren't pushed all the way in, with the webbing between your index and middle fingers hitting the stopper peg, it didn't register. We kept trying to put our finger tips on the scanner assuming it was a finger print scanner, but it seems its main function is to check finger length. Of course, this is just an observation I made, I have no idea how the thing actually works.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
There's a poll in the original story, a simple yes no maybe box with a submit button. /.'er responded it would be easy to push the poll in the direction of individual liberties and defense of privacy.
If every
Yes, I am aware it's not an official Disney poll but there's still a chance they'd pay attention to the results if they were overwhelmingly negative because the tv channel hosting the poll is neutral.
Universal Studios and Sea World plan to do the same according to the local news. It's monkey see, monkey do with the three of them.
This doesn't have anything to do with security. They're not taking your fingerprint at all, and even if they were I don't think they'd be comparing it against fingerprints of known terrorists.
:)
This is just a fuzzy form of authentication. Other people are bound to have the same hand measurements as you but it's unlikely they your friend or family member will have something close.
They've been using this for a while now. The point of it is to prevent other people from using your ticket, even if you're not even using it that particular day. The multi-day tickets have had "Non-transferable" written on them since practically the beginning of time. This is finally a way to enforce it.
I think it's really a shame that it's come to this. Does Disney _really_ need the extra revenue that comes from not allowing people to use other people's ticket? Most people think when they buy the ticket that they're buying X days in the park. You're not, you're buying X days in the park for you. Now, they're really driving the point home.
To put it another way, it costs Disney the same for a 3-day ticket whether or not you personally use all 3 days or if you lend/give it to another person. The difference now is that they're forcing the other person to buy another ticket instead of using unused days of another ticket.
Anyway, I was there in February this year. I had a ticket left over from the end of 2001. I still had a few days left on it. I only had one ticket though so my friend had to buy a new ticket. His ticket forced him to do the finger thing. Mine did not. So to answer your last statement, pre-authentication tickets do not force you to authenticate and in practice (not legitimately) are transferable.
It's nice though that these false statements in the summary really do show who RTFAs.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
Actually, reselling most multiday amusement park tickets is not legal in Florida.
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See for yourself:
http://199.44.254.194/statutes/index.cfm?mode=Vie
A few notes/corrections
-Even though this has been said before... IT IS NOT FINGERPRINTS! The system takes a few measurements at points around your finger - basically to take a rough measurement on how big your fingers are and the span between them.
-This is NOT a new system - This has been in place for annual passes for almost 10 years now and has been in place for all tickets since January.
-The information is not tied to your personal information at ALL. It is simply tied to the ticket information - the system is NOT THAT SMART. It is not pulling your demographic information from some other source to see if you personally have fat fingers. There is no conspiracy here - Don't give the system that much credit...
-The system uses a VERY ROUGH ESTIMATE... why? Because otherwise in the florida weather where you swell up due to heat or if you gained/lost weight it would be a nightmare with tickets being rejected every 2 seconds.. If you are close - it lets you in!
-Why use this instead of photos? Human error - after you look at photos all day everyone starts to look the same and you stop caring enough to pay attention and stop people unless it is very obvious.. plus the time factor.
-What is this used to prevent? - People reselling tickets... Not to stop use of a ticket 2 minutes later.. the turnstiles are already smart enough to stop that.
Seems like I go through this every time a biometric security thing comes up on /.
There are three fundimental ways to identify yourself for access:
Something you have.
Something you know.
Something you are.
Something you have would be a physical token that can't be copied, at least not easily. A smartcard would be a good example. Someone has to physically steal it from you to use it, and you are likely to notice it's absence and alert the proper people. However the problem is that it can be stolen, or lost and thus used.
Something you know would be a password or PIN code. It's an ID stored in your head. The advantage is you don't have to carry it around and can't lose it. The problem is if someone finds it out, they can use it without you ever knowing it's been compramised.
Something you are is of course a physical trait. The good thing is that can't be stolen or anything. Problem is what you are changes, and can't be measured precisely anyhow and thus can be spoofed.
Now, real security comes from using 2 or three of these. Since their problems are different, moving to more than one makes it much harder to compramise security. If all that is required to get on a system is a password, all an intruder needs to do is find out the password and they are in. If, however, it takes a password, smart card, and fingerprint they have to find out the password, steal the card, and obtain and make a fake finger, all before any of this is noticed and access can be revoked.
So, in the case of Disneyland, they are maoving from 1-factor (somthing you have) to 2 (something you have and something you are). Even if someone steals your card, they have to build a fake hand (it's checking hand geometry, not fingerprints) and use it unnoticed. However the real aim is to prevent peopel from shaing their cards. It's easy to give away a token, much harder to make a convincing fake hand and not get caught.
So biometrics are NOT worthless unless they are the only security. When used as an augmentation to one or both of the other methods of security they make it that much harder for someone unauthorized to gain access.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison