Disney Parks Roll Out MagicBands to Track Visitors’ Moves and Purchases

Very soon Disney Parks visitors will all have some rubber bracelets encoded with credit card information which will keep track of their every move inside the parks and will even allow them to make purchases, access hotel rooms and get on wait line lists. You could say that it is a move aimed at simplifying interactions and make the stay more enjoyable, but it is indeed a big brother in the offline world. Do you really want to have all of your moves tracked? People who’ve experienced communism and who have had all of their moves watched by state’s “Security” service (myself included) could tell you (and go on for days) why this is not something comfortable and OK. Is this a step towards limiting freedom? Mobiles can reveal our location, credit cards show what we buy and from where, surveillance cameras show if we were somewhere and when. Where will it all stop?

These bracelets are called “MagicBands” and are part of the “MyMagic+” Disney’s campaign. Other people expressed however their concerns regarding this new system – you can read this article on Forbes.
You can also read this article on The New York Times. As you can find out from this material it is not the first such initiative – just a very big one, given the brand and business.

Disney representatives argue that all of this is aimed at offering an enhanced experience for the customers. As mentioned in the New York Times article: “If we can enhance the experience, more people will spend more of their leisure time with us,” said Thomas O. Staggs, chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts.

Yeah, this technology could mean that a child would enter the park and at some point a special figure – maybe his favourite – would stop and say “Happy birthday” out of the blue. It could be a nice surprise, but I would settle for my boy not experiencing such a moment but not be tracked either. Sounds like technology has to be used in the most various ways, but it isn’t so. There are things we should not do. Do we really want to live in a world that tracks our every move? I find that stressful and, as I already mentioned it, I’ve experienced it and everybody hated it. Yes, today’s watching techniques offer a false impression of freedom, which the system I experienced lacked, but still it is something the world should avoid.