Oh, the early 2000s. If you can recall some of the scandals of those years, you’ll remember one once hotly debated, yet rarely acknowledged these days: the erosion of the concept of personal privacy. During that time, there was such a stink about who was listening to who’s conversation, and who was in who’s business. Society seemed so concerned with keeping its personal things private Now fast forward to 2013.
Today, the idea of personal privacy has been faded, or adjusted (depending on how you see it), in order to provide individuals with a personalized experience of everything, just think Google…and now Disney.
According to its official blog, the Disney Theme Parks plan to provide its visitors a similar trade: some personal info for an individualized and magical experience. This Spring, Disney will be rolling out the MagicBand .
The MagicBand is a data collection device Disney visitors will soon wear as a wrist band, allowing The Mouse and its makers to track and monitor guests within the park. Things like visitor names, credit card numbers, birth date and Fast Pass codes will be easily accessible to the park, at the flick of a wrist.
Once people are able to get over the whole Mickey Big Brother idea, the system’s benefits are speculated as being many fold. Some major improvements would be the ability to make attraction reservations, experience personalized character interactions (as in Mickey will know your little prince/princess’s name), an easier method of payment within the parks, and (brace yourself) the extinction of turnstiles.