Opting out of fingerprints - any firsthand experience?

[Crusader10hky]

Ok, I have been on the other side of this before (I do not work for or represent Disney, but have worked at a venue with a similar system) and I will reiterate that there is no copy or retention of an image of a fingerprint etc. Also, there is also no way to take the numerical value and turn it back into a fingerprint or image. It basically assigns numbers based on variations in the fingerscan and if the the fingerscan on re-entry produces a number that is 'roughly similar' to the pre-recorded number, the system says "yep this most likely this guy". Even though it is possible for multiple people to produce the same number, the odds of a guest giving their ticket to someone (or having it stolen by someone) who could produce a similar number are astronomically low, hence the success of the system.

Probably more information (and yet vague) than anyone wants, but there it is.

That said, requesting photo entry WILL slow him down every time because the Mickey pedestals don't produce a name to match to a photo ID (I don't think) so they will need to have a supervisor with an iPad visit his lane.

The one thing I ask is PLEASE be patient and polite with the CMs. This is not the place to 'make a point' as all it does is ruin days.

 

[DiscoRaptor]

thanks everyone- going to show him this thread tonight and hope that maybe he’ll see how ridiculous he’s being.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

Just got back from Disneyland. They do photos. I actually preferred that. Scan your ticket, your photo pops up...boom you're in. The running joke in my family is that my mom's fingerprint NEVER scans. It's all in her head now. She presses down too hard...but she thinks there's something wrong with her fingerprints.

 

[gratefulfred]

How is that different than holding on the the rails in the line or on the rides?

I usually don’t touch those rails in line. Definitely don’t touch the rails on the ride I don’t want to get my fingers or hands crushed or cut off

 

[DisneyGirlMI]

thanks everyone- going to show him this thread tonight and hope that maybe he’ll see how ridiculous he’s being.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

[Tink9721]

The other reason to not stand around with him is to allow enough room for others to scan in and go around him. It will keep the entrance from getting clogged up with your family waiting on one person. Have fun!

YES. This happened to me so many times on my trip last week. Families all standing together at the tap styles, usually with a stroller, blocking the entrance for everyone behind them There were a couple times my mom's finger print didn't work and she needed a CM; I got out of the way and waited for her inside.

 

[fly girl]

I’m honestly very surprised by his attitude about this, believe me. He’s not a “tinfoil hat guy” at all about anything else but apparently this is the hill he’s choosing to die on. He also doesn’t have an underlying mental health issue that would suggest I should be more understanding about this random paranoia. Even if there was a way for me to use my fingerprint for him there is literally no way I’m going to do that and enable this behavior - if he’s insisting on bypassing this system he’s going to do it on his own! (And I appreciate all those folks here who have suggested that I not stick around to wait with him - all that’s going to do is frustrate and embarrass me and that’s not how I want to start every day of this trip)

The rest of our party will enter as normal and then hang inside until he can catch up. We’re going with my parents too, and my mom will undoubtably want to use a bathroom as soon as we enter () so we can go take care of that and enjoy some early park ambiance

we do live in TX so I’m going to raise that point about the DMV and fingerprints.

You know, all of us have that one weird thing. No sense to it, but we have it.

Funny how Mickey scanning his finger is his. Hope this thread makes him come around. (If not, my hope is after waiting way too long to get through, and by hearing the groans of people behind him, this ends up being a one-and-done scenario and he will cave.) God, I hope so for you.

I'm glad you decided to let him fight this fight solo. Go get a Mickey bar and chill while he fights big brother.

 

[cobright]

I went once with a group that included one like your husband. We all chided him and said we wouldn't wait for him and all that but ... meh it wasn't a big deal. It added about 2 minutes the first time through and less than a minute the next day. Really, we're talking about a small hassle once per day.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's silly, but the reality is it's not a big deal. If you crucify him over this, be prepared to have zero of your own idiosyncrasies (we all have a few) taken into consideration for the remainder of the trip. You marry someone, you get them, warts and all.

 

[vinotinto]

I don’t know if you are interested in getting into RotR and if Disney will still be doing BGs, and if they will be requiring the finger biometric at DHS when you are there, but if all of the above is a “yes,” not doing the finger biometric could pose problems with him not showing that he’s in the park as the CM will need to manually override.

 

[cdurham1]

thanks everyone- going to show him this thread tonight and hope that maybe he’ll see how ridiculous he’s being.

Either people are super kind on here or the moderator has been deleting posts...

I am not a fan of big brother either. However, if this freaks him out, consider just leaving him at home. How can he enjoy the parks with the level of technology and cameras they have now? Won't he be freaking out all day?

 

[cobright]

The other reason to not stand around with him is to allow enough room for others to scan in and go around him. It will keep the entrance from getting clogged up with your family waiting on one person. Have fun!

There's no reason a small group can't scan in then wait just beyond the inner most tapstile for the last person to finish. Other than to send a message to that person that they are a member of your family up until, but no further than, they cause you a 2 minute delay entering WDW.

To clarify, it isn't a fingerprint. It's a biometric.

Well, it's kinda both. Disney hasn't published who makes their scanners but a security tech journal I read gives it up as most likely a Lumigdem Venus (https://www.bayometric.com/fingerprint-scanner-lumidigm-voyager-v311-v31x-sensor/)

The scanner takes a multispectral pic of your finger and generates a 500 dpi image it then runs a vision routine that looks at all the lines on the print and identifies lines that split into two lines, called bifurcations. It records where on the image all of these bifurcations occur into a unique file attached to your ticket number and then it dumps the image. The fingerprint data in this file, called minutia, is the only thing that's saved and it can not be reassembled into an image of your fingerprint. It just can't, it's only the individual points on your finger where one line splits.

 

[goofyernmost]

I find this to unbearable to even read all the way through. How do people get through life with so little knowledge about things in everyday life. If it hasn't been said in the three pages that I haven't read, they are not fingerprints. They are measurements of mass and general shape. They are not connected with the FBI or CIA, which are essentially useless right now anyway. They do not give a fart about what your fingerprint is. All they want to do is compare the general finger characteristics so that someone else would have to prove they are you if they happen to steal your ticket or you lost it. Did you notice that you can use whatever digit you want without telling them so long as you use the same one so it matches the initial set up when the ticket is first used. This country needs a pill of some sort to counterbalance the paranoia.

If the concern is about germs, good grief, are you suspended by a wire above everything so you never have to touch a single thing. You can't get on a ride, use the bathroom, touch a railing or be anywhere near a person that is breathing. Pretty limited life when lived in fear.

 

[jods]

My husband wouldn't do it on 2 trips. He's since caved and does it. That said, he also wasn't big on magic bands and rfid. He also doesn't like Alexa it really wasn't a big deal. The first time took a couple of minutes and after that, a cm with an ipad would come over and he would show ID. It really only added maybe 2 minutes and we would just meet him up ahead. It didn't hold up the line because the cm with the ipad handled it. It's easier now that he's caved but it wasn't a big deal.

 

[DiscoRaptor]

I went once with a group that included one like your husband. We all chided him and said we wouldn't wait for him and all that but ... meh it wasn't a big deal. It added about 2 minutes the first time through and less than a minute the next day. Really, we're talking about a small hassle once per day.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's silly, but the reality is it's not a big deal. If you crucify him over this, be prepared to have zero of your own idiosyncrasies (we all have a few) taken into consideration for the remainder of the trip. You marry someone, you get them, warts and all.

Thank you for sharing your experience here. It’s good to know it isn’t always a major time suck. I’m not going to crucify him for it and you’re right - I have to accept these warts of his.

I don’t know if you are interested in getting into RotR and if Disney will still be doing BGs, and if they will be requiring the finger biometric at DHS when you are there, but if all of the above is a “yes,” not doing the finger biometric could pose problems with him not showing that he’s in the park as the CM will need to manually override.

thankfully we won’t be visiting Galaxys Edge this time but that’s helpful to know.

Either people are super kind on here or the moderator has been deleting posts...

I am not a fan of big brother either. However, if this freaks him out, consider just leaving him at home. How can he enjoy the parks with the level of technology and cameras they have now? Won't he be freaking out all day?

There’s definitely some troll-y posts but thankfully people seem to have been pretty nice in their responses.

so the update is I spoke to him and he still wants to bypass it. He’s a data scientist and is wary of any private company having his biometric data (he won’t do 23 and me or anything like that either). He says in his line of work, which involves data management and security he’s aware of how easily things can be hacked and doesn’t want to risk it. *shrug* He doesn’t care about one iota about wearing the magic band and the tracking involved with that or all of the cameras or any other aspects of Disney surveillance, and is looking forward to the rides or animatronics greeting us and whatnot. I told him as kindly as possible that I felt he had entered tinfoil hat territory and that the rest of our party was going to enter the park before him and that he can take his time doing the bypass and he was fine with that so I’m just going to have to leave it there. I don’t get it and I think he’s being ridiculous, but I’m also refusing to let this bum me out any more than it already has - I’ve been looking forward to this trip for far too long to worry about this any more!

 

[chicagoshannon]

He'll have to tell them that he doesn't want his finger scanned. They'll call over a CM with an iPad and take his picture and ask for his license. After that first time they might only look at his picture. It really doesn't take that long.

I am one of those people that the finger scan doesn't always work for. It's really annoying, but is what it is. Never had it take more than an additional 30 seconds to get it taken care of.

 

[buzznina]

I refuse to use them if I see a black helicopter in the air nearby.

And make sure you have your pink pig.

 

[chicagoshannon]

I don’t know if you are interested in getting into RotR and if Disney will still be doing BGs, and if they will be requiring the finger biometric at DHS when you are there, but if all of the above is a “yes,” not doing the finger biometric could pose problems with him not showing that he’s in the park as the CM will need to manually override.

I really hope that's not true because there are a lot of people a day (including me) that have fingers that just don't scan correctly. I've never had a problem with fastpass so I wouldn't think it would matter for boarding group either.

 

[DisneyOma]

When we went last time with my parents, for whatever reason, my mom's fingerprint would not scan the same twice the entire week. It was crazy. Some days it only took a couple minutes. But some days it took 5 minutes or more to get squared away and my mom kept getting flustered because she didn't want to hold up the line. It was very frustrating for her.

I can understand not wanting to give your fingerprints everywhere, technology can be compromised. But I hope he's prepared for that sort of situation because it can be uncomfortable.

It's not a fingerprint.

I’m honestly very surprised by his attitude about this, believe me. He’s not a “tinfoil hat guy” at all about anything else but apparently this is the hill he’s choosing to die on. He also doesn’t have an underlying mental health issue that would suggest I should be more understanding about this random paranoia. Even if there was a way for me to use my fingerprint for him there is literally no way I’m going to do that and enable this behavior - if he’s insisting on bypassing this system he’s going to do it on his own! (And I appreciate all those folks here who have suggested that I not stick around to wait with him - all that’s going to do is frustrate and embarrass me and that’s not how I want to start every day of this trip)

The rest of our party will enter as normal and then hang inside until he can catch up. We’re going with my parents too, and my mom will undoubtably want to use a bathroom as soon as we enter () so we can go take care of that and enjoy some early park ambiance

we do live in TX so I’m going to raise that point about the DMV and fingerprints.

I think it's perfectly fine to leave your silly husband at the turnstile. If he is choosing to go the tedious route, he can be on that road by himself.

There's no reason a small group can't scan in then wait just beyond the inner most tapstile for the last person to finish. Other than to send a message to that person that they are a member of your family up until, but no further than, they cause you a 2 minute delay entering WDW.

Oh, the psychological horror of it! This must certainly be the end of their marriage!

Did you think of the time added to get through if 5 people ahead of you decide to do this silly process? That "2 minutes" now becomes ten more. So, it's not just the one party with the paranoid person that is affected. It's everyone behind that person, and if there are multiple ones, it adds up. Sucks if it is during entry at DHS to get a BG.

 

[ellbell]

Opting out "just because" will also inconvenience anyone standing in line behind him as well so ask him to do everyone a favor and not show up at rope drop. Midafternoon would probably be best

 

[vinotinto]

I really hope that's not true because there are a lot of people a day (including me) that have fingers that just don't scan correctly. I've never had a problem with fastpass so I wouldn't think it would matter for boarding group either.

I have friends that had issues right after Christmas with the BG not recognizing that one of them was in the park - something related to finger scanning. A news site reported on it as a widespread issue:
https://blogmickey.com/2019/12/wide...f-the-resistance-boarding-groups-this-morning