I've read the Disney Park Experience Terms and Conditions several times, consider myself one of NextGen's most informed pupils, and still don't understand what NextGen is truly trying to accomplish.
I can answer that for you. It's simple, they're trying to find new ways to make more money, or to get a better return on their investments.
From everything I've read on NextGen, here, other sites, patents and other information, there has never been any mention of data harvesting for the purpose of re-selling it to third parties, nor even trying to influence guests in any way. Their stated purposes are to improve the guest experience and find ways to maximize efficiency in their operations, resource planning and improving forecasts (some of this is implied more than stated). Now, that's not to say that they don't have a more (sinister?) plot or conspiracy to do something else, but I haven't seen anything like that. What I have seen is that they want to try and sell the bands and features it provides as a service to off-site hotels and ticket providers, or at the least add more value to the benefits of staying on-property. If you remember, they originally were going to try and sell this to on-property as well, but that changed, although, there are still some pay features such as customizable arm bands and other "for-pay upgrades" they're trying to work in. I'm sure there's more, but that's all that I've read so far.
Just my own speculation here, but I see a couple of things that Disney is likely looking at for the long term.
1) They're probably reaching what some might consider "reasonable capacity" for parks, attractions, hotels, staffing and guest levels. As we know, they are already at a point where they are having trouble maintaining what they have at safe and efficient levels. Sure, there's room for more growth, but the question should be asked, is it within reason and can it be maintained and properly contained? WDW guest levels have grown at an average rate of around 2.5% since 2001, but have started to show signs of leveling out. Some of this is due to competition, but some of it's due to the park capacities as well. There are only so many people you can cram in to MK on July 4th, Christmas week, etc. before it's just not enjoyable for the average guest. Even the off-seasons have grown considerably to the point that it's starting to become uncomfortably crowded more often than not. So, with this in mind, they know they must find new ways to generate revenue without adding capacity.
2) The price of a day ticket is approaching $100, and many are speculating when it will hit and who will be first to raise their prices to this level. Management is concerned that this might just be a breaking point for some families and deter them. So, again, they are looking for new ways to add value to staying on property, or if not, ways they can re-coup the lost revenue of guests who choose to stay off-property.
Again, this is just my speculative guesses, but it's base on what I've read about NextGen. I see no devious plot to sell guest data, just a desire to find new ways to make money without building multi-million dollar attractions that don't necessarily have a foreseeable and quick return. I could be completely off-base, and I'm willing to accept that, but based on what we've seen at WDW and even DLR in the past decade, as well as some of the comments made by Iger, this would seem to me where they're wanting to go.
BTW: I've read thru the Terms and Conditions (mentioned above) as well as their Privacy Policy at:
http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/pp.html -
and they are pretty clear and specific about how they will use your information, and that they will not sell or share it with others unless it is needed to deliver specific services which you requested. They do specify that they may share it within their own companies, but they also make it very clear how to modify or remove your information.
