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
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