Slashdot Mirror
Disney Wants To Track You With RFID
Antipater writes "Disney parks and resorts have long had a system that combined your room key, credit card, and park ticket into a single card. Now, they're taking it a step further by turning the card into an RFID wristband (called a 'MagicBand'), tracking you, and personalizing your park experience, targeted-ad style. 'Imagine booking guaranteed ride times for your favorite shows and attractions even before setting foot in the park,' wrote Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, in a blog posting on Monday. 'With MyMagic+, guests will be able to do that and more, enabling them to spend more time together and creating an experience that's better for everyone.' Disney does go on to talk about all the things you can opt out of if you have privacy concerns, and the whole system seems to be voluntary or even premium." With a theme park, at least, you can also choose to avoid the place entirely; that makes it, however creepy, a bit different from compulsory education settings, or mandatory car tracking.
After watching their recently acquired film THX 1138, CEO Bob Iger hailed it as a "feel good" movie although the ending had some flaws and promised to turn all Disney parks and resorts into the futuristic "utopia" from the film. Iger announced at a press conference that Mickey Mouse would replace OMM 0910 as the only approved deity of worship. Iger sat upon a chair made of the late Congressman Sonny Bono's remains while wearing his Grand Dragoon Mousekateer helmet although he refused to answer any questions from reporters who had not been taking their performance enhancing medications.
My work here is dung.
I admit I don't get the reflexive "defend my privacy" stance on slashdot. Why is this "creepy"? You can opt out if you choose, but you can use the system to enhance your experience at the park if you choose. Plus, it gives Disney data to understand patterns and behaviors of people who enjoy the park, and thus allowing them to enhance and modify the park to meet their customer's desires, which makes their experience more enjoyable and increases the value of the park which ultimately makes it more profitable; that sounds like a win-win.
Can someone please explain a scenario, especially when this is voluntarily opt out, where this is a bad thing for people? Note it's also based on your room card/ticket to the park, so it's not like they can track you outside of the park, only when you're on their facility.
"I'm going to build my own theme park! With blackjack! And hookers! You know what- forget the park!"
I am officially gone from
It's a wristband. You take it off when you leave the park.
I took my family on a Disney cruise and you booked all sorts of things before leaving port. It was nice and the combo room key/charge card/etc was super convenient.
I don't think Disney is hiding the fact that they want to squeeze you for every penny you are willing to give them. Any adult with half a brain can figure that out within a few hours of visiting a park/boarding a ship. They manage to make sure that no matter your budget you can have fun with them and that is no small feat.
Be realistic about your budget and stick to it. I for one really liked going up on deck to a pool that wasn't crowded and having someone bring me a bucket of beers that I had already picked out and paid for - without asking or waiting. If that isn't your style, you can always go with the competition and get overcrowded pools and long lines for a smaller selection of beers that really aren't any cheaper.
And why is this RFID any worse than the extensive CCTV system they already use to monitor the entire park? You aren't dumb enough to think you have privacy in a theme park, right? Outside of restrooms that is.
I don't see an issue with this. You already have a room key tied to your credit card number, a pass with your name on it, and you have to book reservations at most of the eating places in Orlando. Disney already has my information for all of that stuff, and pretty much can already track me. Why not have an all-in-one system? Or is it just because its RFID wristband that everyone here is having an issue with?
You said it yourself. It's their park, not yours.
He said it himself, its not their park its ours, because we paid for it. We should have more say in how something we paid for is run, vs private property. If you don't like the rules for welfare, get off welfare.
Walt Disney World was granted a 20 year tax break from the government
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I just finished re-reading Makers.
She bought it all: all the fast-passes and priority cards, all of it loaded into a grinning Mickey on a lanyard, a wireless pendant that would take care of her everywhere she went in the park, letting her spend money like water.
Thus girded, she consulted with her bellhop some more and laid out an itinerary. Once she'd showered she found she didn't want to wear any of her European tailored shorts and blouses. She wanted to disappear into the Great American Mass. The hotel gift shop provided her with a barkcloth Hawai'ian shirt decorated with tessellated Disney trademarks and a big pair of loose shorts, and once she donned them, she saw that she could be anyone now, any tourist in the park. A pair of cheap sunglasses completed the look and she paid for it all by waving her Mickey necklace at the register, spending money like water.
OK, so it's a bracelet, not a necklace -- otherwise, pretty much spot-on.
Great book, and you can read the whole thing (and all of his books) online for free in a variety of formats.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
My decades long experience with CCTV is its mostly anti-employee rather than anti-public. When the rentacops aren't creeping at the hotties, they'll gather evidence against people on someone's list. "Oh look, kid-who-boss-wants-to-fire went to the can for more than the defined 3 minutes".
Adding RFID means those poor bastards in costumes will now have numeric metrics of how many kids they hugged and will be paid WRT competing with each other and so forth. As a social trend/goal I don't think its anything to be proud of or look forward to.
"human flesh worker drone 2426625-131253, the computer reports that your walking speed is 2.8 MPH and we have a meaningless metric that says we must terminate all human flesh worker drones who walk slower than 2.9 MPH so good bye security will escort you off the property" Yeah I bet that's a fabulous place to visit. Then again Alcatraz and the German concentration camps have a lot of visitors and they were not exactly the peak of human happiness, so maybe not so bad.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
" its not their park its ours, because we paid for it."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahaha.
No, they got a tax breaks to put it there, it's not the same as paying for it. A tax break that brought in a lot of jobs, BTW. Jobs that pay taxes.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I've never been to any amusement park so I can't tell whether they are actually fun and worth it, but whenever I hear of one I'm thinking of Westworld with Yul Brynner. Oh, and by the way, whenever someone mentions McDonalds or a circus, It comes to my mind.
Needless to say I avoid amusement parks and McDonalds.
Yeah, but when you're already booked and just spent 2 days driving 1200 miles to get there, already checked in and spent one night at a resort, then show up at a theme park where they ask you to stick a finger in a scanner.... That's not really the time to opt-out. Thanks Disney World.
Civil rights? Over a voluntary RFID badge? Hyperbole much?
So where are we drawing the "evil rich scum" line this week? $200K? $100K? Anyone who makes more than you?
I took my family to WDW in Orlando last year for a week. We had a great time, no problems. But one concern I had the entire time was "what if we get seperated from the kids?" I'm sure this happens constantly at the park and there's a whole system in place.
Before we left I installed an App on my android that featured maps of the four parks, wait times for rides, locations of characters, restaurants and all that. What if you could your individual party members on your phone? "Person 1 scanned their wristband at Star Tours at 12:34pm"
This. I was standing in a hallway at a Disney park and some guy starts trying to fight me for being in the way of his stroller on the stairs. Not being the type to back down, I said some things that made him feel stupid, such as repeatedly pointing out that there was a stroller ramp just off to the side of us, made for wheelchairs and strollers.
No sooner did he get tired of being a tough guy with nothing to back it up, he left the building (this was less than 1 minute). Immediately, several security guards were asking us what happened. I told them that some guy wanted to fight me for standing there, thanked them for their assistance, told them I was willing to let it drop because he was cranky after pushing a stroller all day and went on my way.
But, the point was that security was there in less than 1 minute, and this is probably the norm, not the exception, at Disney parks.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Having been to Disney world this past august this is just a more advanced version of the system they currently have in place. The only real difference is you currently use your park pass and buttons (personal event greeting) instead of an wristband. The new thing is pre-booking some ride times which considering the lengthy wait times on some of the more popular rides (2 hours+ some days). Disney constantly tracks ride times, guest flow, guest approval and a whole host of things we would never think of all to improve the quality and safety of the experience to allow you more time in the shops and restaurants where they make the real money. Disney above all is into selling you as many of those trinkets and meals as they can manage. The rides are there to give you a reason to come back.
As for the other issue mentioned (scanning your finger print) it is to prevent people from buying one yearly pass or multi-day pass and renting/selling the use of the pass. Neither of which I can blame them from wanting to prevent as this does cut into there bottom line on ticket sales and skews park numbers.
As a general rule I am against any sort of tracking. But, knowing what I know about the "happiest place on Earth" from my college room mate who worked there in the summers, having a tracking wrist band on my kids while I'm there is something that I am 100% for. While the Mouse does everything it can to ensure that the "no child has ever been kidnapped FROM a Disney park" statement holds true, the fact is that things happen to kids there every year and the perpetrators don't have to leave to property to do it.
One of the cool benifits that they could offer would be locating members of your group. All the wrist band for a group would be grouped together in the system. All that you have to do is go to a Kiosk and select something like show group memeber locations. At which point a map of the park would show where each member was. From there, there are a lot of additional features that could be added.
Big Bro...I mean, Mickey Mouse is watching you.
Florida has one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the whole country. There is no personal income tax. That 'welfare queen' has a whole lot to do with that.