Congress Questions Next Gen

[HMF]

target and walmart already do this. this is an article about Target sending pregnancy congratulations and coupons to women before they or spouse (or parents) know
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmir...teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

This illustrates the Nextgen issue perfectly.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Folks, if you haven't, please read COPPA before you comment on the issues surrounding datamining minors.
http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm

 

[HMF]

Nothing more that a Congressman taking on a high profile company, in an attempt to make a name for himself in regard to an "issue" that isn't much of an issue in the grand scheme of things.

Not an issue? Some day in the near future when corporations have the power to monitor you 24/7, will it be an issue then? It's a very slippery slope once you give them that sort of power. Do we really believe that corporations are above the law. apparently in this age of banks being too big to fail , that must be the case.

 

[Monty]

Not an issue? Some day in the near future when corporations and governments have the power to monitor you 24/7, will it be an issue then? It's a very slippery slope once you give them that sort of power.

There are very specific laws in place to stop your Government from doing so. The Supreme Court has made very clear that the Government cannot do so under the 4th Amendment. "Slippery slope" is a straw-man argument that contributes nothing.

 

[Joseph Robinson]

Not an issue? Some day in the near future when corporations and governments already have the power to monitor you 24/7, will it be an issue then? It's a very slippery slope once you give them that sort of power.

Fixed that for you, at least in regards to corporations/advertisers, I'll leave talk of the government to conspiracy theorists.

 

[danlb_2000]

Just an FYI on the band technology. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding. They are not only RFID. The bands contain two different kinds of RFID that require proximity to a reader. However, they also have an 802.11 identifier that communicates with a non-public wifi network in the parks. The 802.11 allows geolocation of the band to a general area. A much higher mesh of Access Points will be needed to get high precision location. The retail shops would be the most likely to leverage more precise location so they can process advanced analytics on how people shop. Detailed tracking does not appear to be in the first phase. It takes a lot more infrastructure. But you can be sure it is being investigated. It is the 802.11 part of the band that will allow you to get detailed text messages and offers using a data push system to a registered smartphone. That will likely be used for that function much more than the apps because the public side of the network will not be as geolocationaly accurate.

Yep, the technology in the bands is totally capable of tracking people locations within the parks. There is an open source project called OpenBeacon that has been around since 2006 that provides everything you need to use RFID readers to do location tracking. There is an example on the web site of this technology being used in 2008 to track 1500 attendees at a conference over a weekend. If a group of volunteers can set this up with free software and off the shelf hardware I no doubt Disney could implement something like this park wide. Whether Disney does this or not is another question.

 

[Rasvar]

I do want to add one more thing on the public 802.11 network in the parks. Based on some things I have found out, tracking by that system was not really considered. Disney did not even have a proper GIS mapping of the public access points and coverage until recently. The funniest thing about it? They were thinking of paying a couple of thousands dollars to have a private company come in and do it. Then they noticed that all of the information they wanted was crowd sourced online by Disney fans. So they are just using the crowd sourced data for now.

 

[HMF]

There are very specific laws in place to stop your Government from doing so. The Supreme Court has made very clear that the Government cannot do so under the 4th Amendment. "Slippery slope" is a straw-man argument that contributes nothing.

So the government (supposedly) can't but corporations can to their heart's desire, and you wonder why HSBC can't get in trouble for aiding drug lords and terrorists.

 

[HMF]

Fixed that for you, at least in regards to corporations/advertisers, I'll leave talk of the government to conspiracy theorists.

And you are OK with that?

 

[Joseph Robinson]

So the government (supposedly) can't but corporations can to their heart's desire.

Nobody forces you to do business with those corporations.

 

[Joseph Robinson]

And you are OK with that?

I'm a realist, and understand that they're going to get the info that they want one way or the other. I'll leave the whole rustled jimmies stuff to people who don't have anything better to do.

 

[njDizFan]

Nothing more that a Congressman taking on a high profile company, in an attempt to make a name for himself in regard to an "issue" that isn't much of an issue in the grand scheme of things.

Rep. Markey has been in Congress for 35 plus years, granted he may be pushing for a Senate seat but he has been a leader in consumer protection laws for almost 4 decades. He is also the author of COPPA, so this is kind of slap in his face. Disney wants to sell your kids information to make a dollar. They are trying to circumvent this law in a very devious manner.

Read the letter her wrote to Iger, wouldn't you want the answers to those questions? Why should I get a diminished experience because I don't want myself or my child being sold products from disney and it's "partners"

 

[Monty]

So the government (supposedly) can't but corporations can to their heart's desire.

With apologies to Bill Engvall... "Here's your tin hat"

 

[Rasvar]

Folks, if you haven't, please read COPPA before you comment on the issues surrounding datamining minors.
http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm

Disney should be able to anonymize any data they collect to not fall afoul of COPPA. Technically, information would be entered by a parent through the My Disney Experience and then the TOS would explain the use of the data. That would actually take care of a lot of the COPPA requirements. COPPA is not even setup to look at this kind of tracking. It falls into a grey area that is a bit of a digital frontier. You can bet if legislation starts being crafted, Disney's lawyers and lobbyists will be all over the Hill.

 

[donsullivan]

I happen to believe that having someone from the government asking the questions vs some blogger or other media resource is likely a good thing. Disney will be forced to respond much more accurately and clearly in a government response than any sort of media outlet. If the questions presented are comprehensive enough it should allow everyone to get a clear picture of the controls that Disney will be placing on this technology and the data that can be gained from it's use.

I for one don't tend to freak out until I have all of the details, and we aren't even close to that yet. Disney actually has the most to loose here if they do not have the appropriate controls over the data that they accumulate. If they are found to not be properly protecting the data and it is used in a way inconsistent with that they say, they are going to get sued all over the place. This is a major corporation that is very aware of these things and I'm quite confident that the lawyers have been all over this to be sure they aren't doing anything stupid.

Having said that, I also expect it's not unreasonable to expect something to crop up in the early days of use that was unexpected that will make people freak out. How Disney reacts to that unexpected event will be the real sign of how seriously they take any privacy concerns around this new capability they are deploying.

 

[SirLink]

Nice to see the tin-hat brigade and Spirit sycophants jumping in...

U. S. of A. you're paranoid conspiracy theorist reputation is solidly intact!

I'm from the UK and any body who likes rights and freedoms the world over - should be concerned when a private corporation, Disney/Amstrad/EA/Sky/Ford want to behave above the government(local/national/international) in monitoring you - way more easier with smart phone apps and location services on ... oh wait sounds familiar... hmmm

I'm sorry but why do they need this information when looking at the actual product could help them out...and it wouldn't cost $2billion to do it...

 

[Joseph Robinson]

Disney will be forced to respond much more accurately and clearly in a government response than any sort of media outlet.

LOL

 

[HMF]

I'm from the UK and any body who likes rights and freedoms the world over - should be concerned when a private corporation, Disney/Amstrad/EA/Sky/Ford

But remember Private corporations are people and have rights too.(sarcasm)

 

[SirLink]

But remember Private corporations are people and have rights too.(sarcasm)

Yeah so do local councils that sell Census data to marketing firms to help balance budgets ... oh wait...and people have say they have freedom...but lost their consumer voice in the process...

 

[Skyway]

They aren't misled

Is it misleading if Disney says "Give us your home address so we can mail you your tickets and a welcome packet!" but they really want to track your hometown and other socioeconomic data?

More important to the issue involving children, is it misleading for Disney to say "Give us your kids name and age so Cinderella can wish them a happy birthday!" and not mention that they will be documenting what stores your 6-year-old girl from Atlanta spends the most time in and what toys and food you buy for her?

We all know Disney didn't spend $2 billion so characters could greet kids by name. So why mislead visitors into thinking that's the reason why they should hand over data without explaining how the company benefits?

 

[Goofyernmost]

I find it ironic that a politician is so concerned about this, yet the Federal gov't is spying on it's citizens more than ever. That is a much bigger concern than a theme park experience.

Beyond that, with the problems we have today for any Government official to focus in on this is almost criminal in my mind. This program is completely voluntary in that you don't have to ever enter a Disney Park anywhere. It is a leisure activity that is not life threatening or needed to survive. Maybe having a quick check to see if it's something that will cause people problems beyond saying no, then leave it for some abstract sub-committee made up of interns or something. Don't waste my tax money on this garbage.

Want some real problems...find out why it costs so much for heating oil. Oil companies are big too and they are supplying a commodity that is required to stay alive. Much more important.

Judging by some of the posts here there is a huge lack of understanding how this will work. Someone mentioned your kids picking up a stuffed character and they will know. It's not that sophisticated. It will only know if you buy one. It won't send a signal out to a sales associate so that they can run over to the youngsters and convince them that they shouldn't take no for an answer if they really want it.