Officially Freaked Out by Photopass

[vicki_c]

I loved the picture of me opening the box at home to take out my magic bands... hey... wait a minute...

LOL

 

[IrishNYC]

I should clarify that I'm not talking about the ride photos with other people in adjacent cars, but instead posed photos of kids and also of other kids, couples, families on individual rides. These should've been sent to just those people and for some reason they ended up on ours. That in conjunction with the fact that each photo we were in listed the exact time and location really spoiled a lot of the carefree happiness I associate with being on a Disney vacation. I will now feel like I am being tracked every second of the day. Just like I never want to see Mickey with his head off, I would rather not know about their creepy Big Brother monitoring.

Unless you've turned off the ability on your smart phone, pictures taken with that will also tell you the exact location they were taken, as well as time and date. Disney utilizing this ability allows them to find any pictures of you your account may be missing. If you know you had your picture taken at 6:03pm with Cinderella at princess palace and it's not in your account, they can look it up and find you within a few shots.

 

[IrishNYC]

Cameras permiate society now days, and if you live in London multiply that by a factor of two at least. Cameras are on light poles, traffic lights, bars, gas stations, banks, schools, government buildings, you get the drift.

Same in NYC. There are ceras everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Many large cities know a crime is happening almost before you call 9-1-1 (or your local emergency service) because cameras have already picked it up. Disney is the least of anyone's worries.

 

[JanaDee]

OP, I agree with you. I find it unsettling and a bit creepy. I don't care if people poo poo my concerns or dismiss them - it doesn't change my opinion about the Big Brother aspect of photopass.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

#1 - you need to voice this to Disney. It is fine that you share on a Message Board, but Disney needs to hear from you.

#2 - wait until you get pictures from the bathroom on your next trip. LOL

 

[Belle0101]

I never read the prequel.

 

[dachsie]

Do you have a smartphone? Its doing more to track you than photopass is

http://www.today.com/money/your-smartphone-may-be-tracking-your-every-move-t17056

 

[AngiTN]

Lucky for all of those who don't want the tech to follow you it's not required. Just don't use the band. Get the plastic ticket. Stand in lines for the photos after rides. Or don't. You get to choose. Disney isn't forcing anything.

The only part I find strange is you have tons of photos of others on your account. I've gotten over 500 photos since MB came about and not 1 time did I get photos of others. Well, not photos intentionally taken of others. Of course others are in the background but I gather that is not what you are complaining about. Posed photos of others on your account are an error. Sounds like the photographer did something wrong in scanning of the band so the photos got linked to the wrong account. Probably have photos of someone either right before or right after you.

Did you not realize when you purchased this that ride photos and videos are part of the package, no tapping or scanning necessary? This shouldn't have come as a surprise to you.

Same here. How can one not know? It's pretty spelled out in the Memory Maker site

I should clarify that I'm not talking about the ride photos with other people in adjacent cars, but instead posed photos of kids and also of other kids, couples, families on individual rides. These should've been sent to just those people and for some reason they ended up on ours. That in conjunction with the fact that each photo we were in listed the exact time and location really spoiled a lot of the carefree happiness I associate with being on a Disney vacation. I will now feel like I am being tracked every second of the day. Just like I never want to see Mickey with his head off, I would rather not know about their creepy Big Brother monitoring.

Huh? So the fact that Disney took photos of you, some you asked for by approaching a photographer, has now spoiled any part of your trip by negatively affecting the carefree happiness? Just how does that thread together? Again, trash the band. You are no longer tracked

I loved the picture of me opening the box at home to take out my magic bands... hey... wait a minute...

Best post of the thread!

 

[bumbershoot]

These should've been sent to just those people and for some reason they ended up on ours.

That sort of error has ALWAYS happened with photopass, though. I have never done PP without getting someone else's picture in there by mistake. You delete it and move on. Just like the other people are doing, who got your picture.

As the other person said, this proves that it's just a machine; no one is *watching* you. You're just a number in a computer program.

That in conjunction with the fact that each photo we were in listed the exact time and location really spoiled a lot of the carefree happiness I associate with being on a Disney vacation. I will now feel like I am being tracked every second of the day.

Whereas if you were a scrapbooker and got lost in the moment and forgot when pictures were taken, you could now make sure to put those pictures in the correct order. Or if you were going to make a trip report.

 

[Love Tink]

I should clarify that I'm not talking about the ride photos with other people in adjacent cars, but instead posed photos of kids and also of other kids, couples, families on individual rides. These should've been sent to just those people and for some reason they ended up on ours. That in conjunction with the fact that each photo we were in listed the exact time and location really spoiled a lot of the carefree happiness I associate with being on a Disney vacation. I will now feel like I am being tracked every second of the day. Just like I never want to see Mickey with his head off, I would rather not know about their creepy Big Brother monitoring.

The reason you got posed photos of other families is that they had photos taken before you, and when the photographer went to scan their Magic Band or PhotoPass card, the scan did not go through. This can happen because of a connectivity issue, because the sun hits the card at the wrong angle and interferes, because the photographer is in a hurry or distracted and doesn't notice that he/she did not get a connection, or for other reasons.

If the photos are not sent to the previous family's account, they are still loaded and waiting, and then they get sent along with yours when your connection does go through. There is nothing nefarious about it, and it happened long before Magic Bands.

I usually get maybe one time a trip where I get other people's photos, and my reaction is to 1) Delete them from my account. 2) Think, "Oh I hope those people contacted Disney and got their photos."

I have never gotten another family's ride photo. I honestly do not know how that could have happened - unless your party was split up in different cars.

PhotoPass photos were always date stamped by the photographer's camera. Maybe now it is more apparent to you, but it is not new.

 

[JanaDee]

Do you have a smartphone? Its doing more to track you than photopass is

http://www.today.com/money/your-smartphone-may-be-tracking-your-every-move-t17056

LOL All of that was turned off 5 minutes after I got my first smart phone, over 3 years ago.

 

[ScrapYap]

I feel the same way.

I really don't like the feeling I constantly had last week while I was there.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We, too, had quite a few pictures of others on our Memory Maker, especially in Enchanted Tales with Belle. I just sat there and deleted them. With 4 cell phones, and 2 cameras, I had enough to sift through without adding anyone else's kids to my pictures. It didn't creep me out so much, I just wondered where they all came from. There was one taken on EE that I looked for the longest time for someone from our party, because they went single rider. I concluded it was a fluke.

 

[AngiTN]

LOL All of that was turned off 5 minutes after I got my first smart phone, over 3 years ago.

Yea, same here. Much like I'm amazed that people didn't know about the MB and Photos, I was equally amazed watching that segment on the Today Show this morning. I was yelling at the TV that surely everyone knew that already. How do you think Google knows where you drive each day or what Subway is near you? People really don't use their brains sometimes

 

[AngiTN]

We, too, had quite a few pictures of others on our Memory Maker, especially in Enchanted Tales with Belle. I just sat there and deleted them. With 4 cell phones, and 2 cameras, I had enough to sift through without adding anyone else's kids to my pictures. It didn't creep me out so much, I just wondered where they all came from. There was one taken on EE that I looked for the longest time for someone from our party, because they went single rider. I concluded it was a fluke.

That one and JTA both contain pictures of everyone in that show with you. They never started separating them automatically and just group them all together. I too just delete the photos I don't want

 

[lauradis]

OP, I agree with you. I find it unsettling and a bit creepy. I don't care if people poo poo my concerns or dismiss them - it doesn't change my opinion about the Big Brother aspect of photopass.

It is creepy, but every cool, I tired of standing in line to check out and buy splash mountain pic every trip lol ....

Op I don't think people really want your family pics as much as you don't care to have theirs, just delete them and move on.

As far as the bands tracking you, I'm sorry Disney doesn't care that much about you personally to track you as a person.... they are tracking your habits while in the parks to make it a better experience so you will spend more money. period. no 1984, no big brother.... its simply a massive deluxe data mining tool to sell you more mickey crap.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Yea, same here. Much like I'm amazed that people didn't know about the MB and Photos, I was equally amazed watching that segment on the Today Show this morning. I was yelling at the TV that surely everyone knew that already. How do you think Google knows where you drive each day or what Subway is near you? People really don't use their brains sometimes

I know. People are posting on Facebook and it's giving their location. Might as well announce to the city you're not home and not going to be anytime soon. Sometimes people who aren't tech savvy have no idea how to turn the location setting off. I've shown quite a few people how to do it.

 

[frisbeego]

That one and JTA both contain pictures of everyone in that show with you. They never started separating them automatically and just group them all together. I too just delete the photos I don't want

A CM highly recommended that, when I get a JTA, Pirates Tutorial, or ETWB card, I should go to a photo center and have them add the pictures of my family (and not the pictures without my family) to my MDE/MM. She suggested (though I didn't understand) that the presence of the hundreds of the non-family pictures was causing some issues with my account. I will say that, watching them scroll through the non-family pictures 20/page while they tried to fix my problem, felt like a huge waste of time. So now, if I can, I follow the CM's advice and have the photo center link just the family pictures from JTA, ETWB, etc.

 

[AngiTN]

A CM highly recommended that, when I get a JTA, Pirates Tutorial, or ETWB card, I should go to a photo center and have them add the pictures of my family (and not the pictures without my family) to my MDE/MM. She suggested (though I didn't understand) that the presence of the hundreds of the non-family pictures was causing some issues with my account. I will say that, watching them scroll through the non-family pictures 20/page while they tried to fix my problem, felt like a huge waste of time. So now, if I can, I follow the CM's advice and have the photo center link just the family pictures from JTA, ETWB, etc.

Yes, I have been given the same advice. However, it can take a few hours for them to upload and sometimes we just aren't in the park anymore.
The only time I've had issues with our PP account and the number of pictures was when I did a share and there were thousands of pictures. It got to the point where they wouldn't add to the download page any longer.

 

[Mikie]

A CM highly recommended that, when I get a JTA, Pirates Tutorial, or ETWB card, I should go to a photo center and have them add the pictures of my family (and not the pictures without my family) to my MDE/MM. She suggested (though I didn't understand) that the presence of the hundreds of the non-family pictures was causing some issues with my account. I will say that, watching them scroll through the non-family pictures 20/page while they tried to fix my problem, felt like a huge waste of time. So now, if I can, I follow the CM's advice and have the photo center link just the family pictures from JTA, ETWB, etc.

That's my single favorite tip to share about MM. I could care less about having digital images of strangers, Or they of me, but it REALLY slows down the MM page when you want to view, edit or download your pics. On your own, it takes forever to delete stranger pictures one at a time, but at the photopass store, they can quickly grab just your photos off the card, link them up and send you on your way.