With the recent release of Disney‘s MyMagic+, some guests and critics are striking back, saying they see this as a violation of privacy.
The term “Big Brother” is being thrown around once again by the same individuals that applauded Disney for introducing online reservations and FastPass systems. Does this change anything in regards to privacy?
Truthfully, it is difficult to tell at the moment and many see this as a scheme for companies like Disney to aquire more details on their guests than ever before. If we look at the previous system and compare it to what is happening now then yes companies like Disney will have the ability to track your experiences, more so than in previous years.
However, if you are the person who makes reservations for your hotel, purchases multi-day tickets, uses fast passes (or similar park ticketing) scans your finger at a turnstile or uses a credit card or park ticket to pay for items or food then you are already being tracked by the park. If you are using the free wifi in a park, then you are being tracked.
The truth is that with the current technological advances and our desire to hop on that train without understanding the tech behind it, we have no idea how much of our lives are tracked for sales and marketing purposes. In a time when every dvd you rent and every library book or search you do is recorded somewhere, the thought that we are actually surprised and upset by a company using seemingly helpful technological advancements to collect data on us seems quite naive.
Companies like Disney and Universal have always done this. If you have ever purchased a multi-park or park hopper pass at one of these parks, then you have contributed to it. These parks created these passes after tracking guest experiences jumping from one park to another in the same day. This is nothing new actually, it is simply more mainstream and blatant now.
In exchange for the obvious release of your data, these companies are expecting you to get a better, more interactive experience. Will they deliver that? Only time will tell.
