The Walt Disney company is going a step too far. The Mouse is taking the fingerprints of guests to ensure that those who buy tickets to the Orlando Greedfest are who they say they are. According to a story on WKMG (www.local6.com) the newest wrinkle in getting into the park is to give up your fingerprints.
To prevent the widespread fraud and resale of Magic Kingdom tickets, you have to tie your identity to the ticket. In the past, Disney used finger and hand shape recognition to check identity. Now, the actual fingerprint is taken and, according to the Disney PR fartcatcher, the data is held for 30 days.
Disney, being a technologically advanced company, has developed a reliable, durable fingerprint reader that will scan the digit in less than a second and generate a numerical value to associate the ticket with the human. After that, all the park has to do is ask for the human’s finger again to ensure that, yes, this human belongs here. Of course, these readers will be mandatory at each attraction to “ensure security” and to see what attractions are popular, unpopular, over-attended or will be experiencing crowds.
I’ve had to submit my fingerprints to get various security clearances over the years. I have no problem with the general concept of a background check for government work and work that might entail material of a secure nature. I can choose not to apply for those kinds of jobs and the government has reasonable controls over who has access to that information about me. Those who have access to the nuclear launch codes should be screened extensively; no question there.
The identity of a human for the purposes of conducting day to day business has some value. Your Driver’s License is proof to the police that you are remotely familiar with the Rules of the Road and have paid the fees and insurance mandated by law to access the privilege of driving a motor vehicle in Ontario.
Your SSN, or SIN number in Canada, is proof that you are entitled to have Social Insurance payments and taxes deducted at source then forwarded to the government on your behalf.
Your health card number and picture means you are entitled to wait in a lineup in a hospital emergency room.
Your passport means the Federal government has given you a cursory look, is satisfied that you are a citizen and in the Name of Her Majesty the Queen is asking a foreign government to give you all aid and assistance without let or hinderance.
CostCo wants to see my membership card to ensure that I have paid my membership fee and I should be allowed into the store: Same with a library card, video rental card or a CAA membership.
For those purposes, I have no problem giving up the data. It is legal, lawful, reasonable and sensible.
The rest of the data collection is utterly unwarranted and I refuse to play, as the companies involved are just fishing.
My personal favourite is the request from certain stores for your telephone number along with your signature on a credit card slip. On more than one occasion I have signed my name as Dirty Sanchez or Avery T. Deacon Harry. The T stands for Tom.
I’ve also use 613-745-1576 as the phone number. That phone number is the National Research Council Official Time Signal, by the way. Call it as often as you’d like.
In every case, the clerk doesn’t give a rats’ ass, as long as there is some kind of squiggle on the slip. All the credit card company cares about is the physical presence of the card in the reader.
As best as I can determine, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, does not contain high security data of National Security grade, or the launch codes for nuclear war. As long as my ticket is not counterfeit and I have presented it myself, then I would like admittance. Disney can choose not to admit me, as that is their right, as long as I get a refund. I have the right to not buy their ticket in the first place.
There is no reason why, including the elusive ‘security’ that you should have to give up fingerprints to a commercial organization. Especially if there are no controls over the database of fingerprints except the lame mouthings of a PR flack who says they ditch the data every month. If the Department of Homeland Paranoia demands the fingerprint data of all the customers in the Magic Kingdom, then Disney will give it up in less than ten seconds.
The time is coming when you are going to be asked for your fingerprints for even the slightest transaction, if the paranoia preachers have their way. You can resist this by refusing to give out data that you feel is none of their business.
The only entity with the right to demand your fingerprints are the police, and then, only if you are charged with a crime and arrested. Tell the rest of them to stick a finger in their stink if they want some prints.
RoadDave 