Yellowstonetim
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 22, 2013
Really?.........I never said Disney wasn't tracking with MBs..............BUT WHO CARES.............I really don't...........whether I buy a Pluto for the grandkids or eat here or there?......when I book FP+.............WHO CARES....its meaningless. Let them arrange and maximize their sales, that is what ALL companies do and it doesn't make Disney EVIL...................If you don't want something....DONT BUY IT! That's the individual guests choice to buy or not!
What scares me is all the others stores/companies , Amazon, car dealerships, LL Bean, Macys , Target, Banking ,CREDIT RATINGS, when I buy a House or rent a apartment, buy a boat (major purchase), tracking us by our cell phones, cams, facial recon. on public street for other then criminal matters. When the details like this are brought and sold between them they are actually EFFECTING peoples lives and often in a negative way. This has been going on for a number of years now, years before the MBs...............his is what we need to worry about and be scared about.
AKK
Yellowstonetim- I agree and share your sense of 'holy crap - this is almost terrifying with the applications and ramifications'.
I am sorry, I think you may have misunderstood me. I don't think Disney is evil and I am not scared of this at all. But you are right, Rileygirl, it is "almost terrifying" but not quite. I am very much in favor of it! My gee-whiz awe is because I am very excited for the possibilities. In a very limited way, I work with examining groups, behaviors, and use statistical analysis. It is primitive and on a much smaller scale than what we are talking about, but I know enough to know how powerful and useful this data will be and its potential to change the theme park experience. No fear or hesitation whatsoever. Everyone who puts on a magic band does so voluntarily while on vacation. I could care less if they track me, especially when it will improve my experience. When I leave I take off the band and the government does not have scanners where I live.
Nothing I mentioned in my post requires input from the customer. The bands do it all. They will know where you are and how long it took. They will know whether or not your party was together. Of course, they will know more about those that stay on property, but they know a great deal about everyone that wears a band. You have to consider the different pieces of information they can put together. They can do a study of the differences in behavior of families with one, two, three, and four kids. How much longer does it take them to go from A to B, what different store and eating habits do they have? How are these different size families behaviors different by ages, nationalities, length of stay, etc., etc. Now how do these groups behave differently when the weather is 60 as opposed to 90?
Plus, you have to remember that surveys are very flawed. People do not always tell you the truth or the whole truth, or they often don't remember things correctly. The bands won't lie. They will tell you to the second when they actually went somewhere and exactly when they left.
Part of this whole things is that the information will help Disney to understand crowd behavior in great detail so they can make adjustments to alleviate problem areas. This is huge. And it isn't really the band with two RFID chips. It is the network of scanners and the computer program that will collect the information and then do some serious crunching and analysis. It will take some time to work out the details of how to analyze the data and understand what it means. Part of the work will be analyzing changes in behavior when changes happen in the park. However, as it gets perfected, Disney will be a decade ahead of anyone else, if not more. Then they can liscense what they have to any other business that wants to understand large groups of people moving in complex patterns within a controlled area. Basically theme parks, but there may be other places. Maybe large sporting events, although movement there is not near as complex so the value is less. Still there would be much to know about exactly what someone does when they get up out of their seat. And I read a story about how the bands could be used in a hospital. That sounds wonderful.