Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

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Voice of Disney sanity

Voice of Disney sanity

Well-Known Member
And that is my point exactly. What they are doing now IMO is a bigger invasion of privacy because most people are not even aware they are being recorded. A collection of data that includes a groups behavior is not. What you do at WDW IS WDW's business and therefore there is no expectation of you keeping what you do at WDW from Disney. As a matter of fact. they have a RIGHT to know what you are doing and how you behave in the public areas of WDW. Now, them selling that information to other entities is a whole other matter HOWEVER, we have not seen that they intend to do this, so I'm withholding judgement.
 
alphac2005

alphac2005

Well-Known Member
pwnbeaver said:
I refuse to believe this kind of stuff. The greedy studios say things like that all the time to try and undermine their profits and get tax breaks. If they knew that they wouldn't make much on Avengers they wouldn't have spent a ludicrous amount of money on RDJ. If they know that they won't make much on Avengers 2 they wouldn't have given the whole cast raises. It's rumoured that Disney purposely tanked Lone Ranger (a really good movie, and something that should have been a hit) to kill some of Depp's stock and power. If they don't make much money on movies, how could they afford to throw away a 200 million dollar venture?

This story is relevant and always interesting to me:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/media/27movie.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I think that studios are making way more on movies than they want you to know. Do I think that The Lone Ranger could have cost 200 million dollars to make? Sure, but that could be inflated too. Do I believe that they wouldn't have made anything off of it had it cleared 300 mil at the box office? Not a chance.
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You're absolutely right. Speaking as someone that was actually in that business for bit of time, numbers are manipulated to show loses for all types of reasons including tax purposes and most importantly to avoid back end percentages that many producers and A-list actors agree to as part of their salary and earnings from a picture. However, there is truth to there being a lot of gambling with high priced films and the tent pole strategy being risky long-term for any studio. When you're seeing the cost of a film, you typically have to add 50-100% to the cost for marketing. Remember that the studio splits the ticket revenue with the theater, so only half of the stated box office goes to the studio, and on the international side, it varies from country to country, but the percentages are generally much lower, around a third to the studio, the rest with the theaters plus there are many different distribution agreements worldwide that can cause an even greater percentage going away from the studio.

It's interesting to see that percentage-wise, several of the low budget films have done incredibly the past couple of years. $10 million films with $100+ domestically and internationally along with much lower percentage ad budgets.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
danlb_2000 said:
In all this discussion of privacy I haven't seen much discussion of something WDW1974 said in his first post:

"During part of my stay, I got a very close up view of some of the gizmos Disney is using (all Apple tech, silent prayer at the cult of Jobs) for NGE and even was allowed (no, I doubt Georgie will be happy when he reads this) to test the tech and see for myself just how much information will truly be at CMs fingertips. Simply put, a troubling amount."

This is what would concern me, collecting data is one thing, but the bigger issue is who gets access to that data once it's collected.
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Oh, that...yeah...he's told me that story.
It's troublesome, no doubt.

Perhaps he'll tell the tale here soon.
 
Clever Name

Clever Name

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
Facial recognition cameras and software at WDW??!!!! Never ...
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Sorry, but you're too late:

"It turns out that Disney applies biometrics – that is, the statistical analysis of biological data – in the form of scanning visitor fingerprint information and identifying people with facial recognition software.

In fact, "Walt Disney World is responsible for the nation’s largest single commercial application of biometrics" and after 9/11 the government sought "Disney’s advice in intelligence, security and biometrics," as reported in 2006 by Karen Hamel of News 21."

http://www.businessinsider.com/this...lations-about-trapwire-spying-are-true-2012-8
 
Hakunamatata

Hakunamatata

Le Meh
Premium Member
Clever Name said:
Next thing you know they'll have a complete inventory of our home supply of guns, ammunition and explosive devices.
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Questions about firearms in homes are being asked more and more. Had a friend who was asked at either his Dr. or the ER about that. I believe that is a part of the new nationalized healthcare bill. I'm not 100% sure about that though.
 
SJFPKT

SJFPKT

Active Member
Clever Name said:
Sorry, but you're too late:

"It turns out that Disney applies biometrics – that is, the statistical analysis of biological data – in the form of scanning visitor fingerprint information and identifying people with facial recognition software.

In fact, "Walt Disney World is responsible for the nation’s largest single commercial application of biometrics" and after 9/11 the government sought "Disney’s advice in intelligence, security and biometrics," as reported in 2006 by Karen Hamel of News 21."

http://www.businessinsider.com/this...lations-about-trapwire-spying-are-true-2012-8
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Pretty sure that was tounge in cheek.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
There is a big difference between recording a crowd, and recording a list of individuals. The technology alters the type of info collected and alters the ease at which the actions of individuals are interpreted... At scale
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I do believe that this gives them the opportunity to collect actions of individuals more so then a camera might, but I fail to see what about it would be worth mining other than as a grouping of identities. How many people would it take to monitor the thousands and thousands of individuals that are at WDW a day. There isn't enough man power or time to evaluate everything on an individual level, just as a group, just like camera's do, except you are a number instead of a photograph.
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
hakunamatata said:
Questions about firearms in homes are being asked more and more. Had a friend who was asked at either his Dr. or the ER about that. I believe that is a part of the new nationalized healthcare bill. I'm not 100% sure about that though.
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First, Florida has outlawed that. Doctors cannot ask about guns.

Second, it is a public health concern. I have no problem with a medical doctor asking about firearms in my home. Doctor/Patient confidentiality applies.
 
cslafferty

cslafferty

Well-Known Member
Not that anyone out there has been holding their breath wondering what my take on all of this is, but here it is anyway. Keep in mind, these are just my humble thoughts; I am not a techie, business person, or investment banker. Just your average, middle-aged (hate that term) consumer who likes to go to WDW for vacation once a year.

Disney has a history of being on the cutting edge: Walt's animation process revolutionized film, bringing us all those wonderful classics we grew up with; Walt's dream of Disneyland and the development of animatronics revolutionized the entertainment industry and how we all spend our vacations. Now, I believe Disney is still trying to be on the cutting edge, but this time it is not directly being felt by all of us consumers - well, at least not in a good way. This time I believe they are trying to revolutionize the relationship between producer and consumer like never before. And, while others are racing to build rides, Disney is willing to take a temporary back seat to all of that in order to put their efforts into this, because they can see that if this works out the way they intend, it will pay off for them in a BIG way. Then, I am hoping that they will take some of that pay off, and put it back into the parks to put them back into the running. There have been posts throughout this forum suggesting that there won't be anything big in the parks for a few years, and that would make sense. It will take that long to see some of the monetary effects of Nex Gen - "data mining" and all.

How does this make me feel? Well, I guess I've always believed that "Big Brother"was watching anyway, and pretty much knows how many times I . . . well let's just say they know whether or not I need a coupon for Activia sent to my email! :rolleyes: Disney already knows where I live and has my credit card info on their website and has for years, and that's the biggie as far as I'm concerned. Does it really matter to me that they know when and how often I walk into one of their shops, how much time I spend there, and what I end up purchasing? Which rides I ride, shows I see, and which ones I don't? Maybe I'm naive, but it really doesn't bother me. Maybe that will help them see which attractions are keepers and which aren't. And as far as them selling my info to others in order to influence when and how I spend my money . . . well, I can only be influenced if I let it happen.
 
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