MyMagic+

[JenMuse]

Is anyone else scared that they're going to incorporate some sort of gps device into the wristband so that they know where every guest is at once? Don't get me wrong, the idea of having your room key/tickets/payment all on one device is wicked cool, but the possibilities of this thing scare me.

Well, no and I'm a data miner. In my day job, I have access to the bookstore purchasing habits of about 5 million customers. Unless a store requests specific customer information (for dispute resolution), I never look at the micro level. Big data is not so much about the individual as about the trends and correlation in the general population. I'm looking for groupings and trying to figure out what and when people will buy next. I'm looking at what time of day the most people are shopping so our stores can staff accordingly. Things like that. It's much more benign than the media makes it out to be.

Disney is looking at quite a few more customers than I am so I'm definitely certain they're not inspecting it on the micro level.

The idea of tracking spending habits by resort though I totally see. That would be fascinating...

[theBIGyowski]

Is anyone else scared that they're going to incorporate some sort of gps device into the wristband so that they know where every guest is at once? Don't get me wrong, the idea of having your room key/tickets/payment all on one device is wicked cool, but the possibilities of this thing scare me.

Well, no and I'm a data miner. In my day job, I have access to the bookstore purchasing habits of about 5 million customers. Unless a store requests specific customer information (for dispute resolution), I never look at the micro level. Big data is not so much about the individual as about the trends and correlation in the general population. I'm looking for groupings and trying to figure out what and when people will buy next. I'm looking at what time of day the most people are shopping so our stores can staff accordingly. Things like that. It's much more benign than the media makes it out to be.

Disney is looking at quite a few more customers than I am so I'm definitely certain they're not inspecting it on the micro level.

The idea of tracking spending habits by resort though I totally see. That would be fascinating...

I can back JenMuse up...as I have done a ton of QA on Data Warehouses for large banks and utility companies. Most of the mining done is for trends that eventually go to groups in the companies like Marketing and can lead to nice, new programs. One example would be a bank seeing which customers use certain credit cards, and how often they use them, in order to offer rewards and special promotions. I can only hope this is something Disney will eventually do for guests in the near future. In today's Data Warehouses your personal information is very well guarded. Almost all databases today are normalized so much that your personal information never even gets used. The closest any group would get to your personal information would be some unique ID assigned to you. It is done to protect your personal information...but mostly to speed things up when these queries are run.

[JenMuse]

Is anyone else scared that they're going to incorporate some sort of gps device into the wristband so that they know where every guest is at once? Don't get me wrong, the idea of having your room key/tickets/payment all on one device is wicked cool, but the possibilities of this thing scare me.

Well, no and I'm a data miner. In my day job, I have access to the bookstore purchasing habits of about 5 million customers. Unless a store requests specific customer information (for dispute resolution), I never look at the micro level. Big data is not so much about the individual as about the trends and correlation in the general population. I'm looking for groupings and trying to figure out what and when people will buy next. I'm looking at what time of day the most people are shopping so our stores can staff accordingly. Things like that. It's much more benign than the media makes it out to be.

Disney is looking at quite a few more customers than I am so I'm definitely certain they're not inspecting it on the micro level.

The idea of tracking spending habits by resort though I totally see. That would be fascinating...

I can back JenMuse up...as I have done a ton of QA on Data Warehouses for large banks and utility companies. Most of the mining done is for trends that eventually go to groups in the companies like Marketing and can lead to nice, new programs. One example would be a bank seeing which customers use certain credit cards, and how often they use them, in order to offer rewards and special promotions. I can only hope this is something Disney will eventually do for guests in the near future. In today's Data Warehouses your personal information is very well guarded. Almost all databases today are normalized so much that your personal information never even gets used. The closest any group would get to your personal information would be some unique ID assigned to you. It is done to protect your personal information...but mostly to speed things up when these queries are run.

And access to the servers where personal info is stored is usually very restricted. I have access to info our CEO can't get to. And I don't have access to credit card info (and don't want it thank you very much).

Think about it this way, the more people have access to private info, the greater the possibility of those users passwords being cracked (or those users being corrupt) which leads to higher liability which adds up to higher insurance premiums. And no one wants that excepting of course the insurance company. So there is financial incentive to keep private data secure.

With top of the line servers & smart data warehouse designs (including those magical unique identifiers), staffing of business intelligence and database developer departments can be pretty small even in large companies like Disney.

[cy1229]

Well, no and I'm a data miner. In my day job, I have access to the bookstore purchasing habits of about 5 million customers. Unless a store requests specific customer information (for dispute resolution), I never look at the micro level. Big data is not so much about the individual as about the trends and correlation in the general population. I'm looking for groupings and trying to figure out what and when people will buy next. I'm looking at what time of day the most people are shopping so our stores can staff accordingly. Things like that. It's much more benign than the media makes it out to be.

Disney is looking at quite a few more customers than I am so I'm definitely certain they're not inspecting it on the micro level.

The idea of tracking spending habits by resort though I totally see. That would be fascinating...

I can back JenMuse up...as I have done a ton of QA on Data Warehouses for large banks and utility companies. Most of the mining done is for trends that eventually go to groups in the companies like Marketing and can lead to nice, new programs. One example would be a bank seeing which customers use certain credit cards, and how often they use them, in order to offer rewards and special promotions. I can only hope this is something Disney will eventually do for guests in the near future. In today's Data Warehouses your personal information is very well guarded. Almost all databases today are normalized so much that your personal information never even gets used. The closest any group would get to your personal information would be some unique ID assigned to you. It is done to protect your personal information...but mostly to speed things up when these queries are run.

And access to the servers where personal info is stored is usually very restricted. I have access to info our CEO can't get to. And I don't have access to credit card info (and don't want it thank you very much).

Think about it this way, the more people have access to private info, the greater the possibility of those users passwords being cracked (or those users being corrupt) which leads to higher liability which adds up to higher insurance premiums. And no one wants that excepting of course the insurance company. So there is financial incentive to keep private data secure.

With top of the line servers & smart data warehouse designs (including those magical unique identifiers), staffing of business intelligence and database developer departments can be pretty small even in large companies like Disney.

...

Man, talk about your nerd alerts!!!

[JenMuse]

...

Man, talk about your nerd alerts!!!

Heee, it's a nerdy subject to be sure. But at least I didn't break out a pivot graph on your &**.

[dstrawn9889]

when i last booked a trip, the cm on the other end asked my name and using my area code, told me how many times i had been to the parks... DW was amazed, but obviously they were even keeping track waaaaaay back in the day, even mpre amazing was up until that time i had NEVER paid for my own tix. Data storage and mining at its best

[Amy]

when i last booked a trip, the cm on the other end asked my name and using my area code, told me how many times i had been to the parks... DW was amazed, but obviously they were even keeping track waaaaaay back in the day, even mpre amazing was up until that time i had NEVER paid for my own tix. Data storage and mining at its best

Wow ~ I would guess a lot of people would be surprised at that. They are indignant about how their data is being used because it is being talked about more, and they actually have no idea how long it has really been tracked.

[theBIGyowski]

billions of dollars are being spent on the Disney parks...

I can guarantee you they want as much data and information about that money as is possible.

Regardless of how many may feel...Disney's most important interest is in making their guests happy...because happy people come back and spend more money. Happy people tell other people how happy they are...which makes those people interested in being happy...and spending their money on Disney stuff. There is just a balance that has to take place...between making sure money is being made...and making sure the guests stay happy.

[Soarin08]

This new system will revolutionize everything about the parks and cut so many problems that we are currently having (ie. demagnitized tickets, unauthorized ticket sales, wrong biometric data) and make things far smoother than they can possibly be. I'm biased, I know. I'm in the front line of developing the system, as guest relations is directly involved and we are of course the utmost in knowledgable in what's going on.

The guests love it. Absolutely love it. I can't tell you how many positive comments I get every single day since we implemented the new touch points for resort guests. It has cut the lines dramatically and made entering the parks so much faster, and after witnessing the wristband test yesterday, that went even better.

Although I would think GPS would be handy on the bands. Especially if you lose yours. Rather than us having to replace it, if it's making the rounds on the floor of a doom buggy, it can instead be retrieved easily. Some guests are ridiculously paranoid about the biometrics and other data and I can't figure out why. It's Disney, not like we're wiretapping into your bank account or something.

[Wizzard419]

I am not sure how the wristbands can cut down on ticket "renting" (if you mean selling the unusued days on a pass). Are the bands incapable of being removed once they are placed on your person?

GPS would not only be an expensive idea, but also impractical since that would require a power supply while NFC can just use copper wire to draw power from a reader. That and the whole, it's crazy illegal thing.

[theBIGyowski]

The only downside in all of this would probably have to be the cost to Disney...which will no doubt be passed on to the guests.

I know Disney would not be rolling this out if they hadn't perfected the security on it.

Soarin...can you tell us if there is a PIN or something required when making Point Of Sale transactions using the new wristband? A buddy of mine said it would be way too easy to take a reader...record the ID from someone's wristband without them knowing...then encode a new wristband with that person's stolen ID...and go from there to charge things to their room. Obviously...you can do this if you steal someone's Key to the Kingdom card...so it's nothing new...but with the wristband you can take this information without the person ever knowing it was stolen.

[Soarin08]

The only downside in all of this would probably have to be the cost to Disney...which will no doubt be passed on to the guests.

I know Disney would not be rolling this out if they hadn't perfected the security on it.

Soarin...can you tell us if there is a PIN or something required when making Point Of Sale transactions using the new wristband? A buddy of mine said it would be way too easy to take a reader...record the ID from someone's wristband without them knowing...then encode a new wristband with that person's stolen ID...and go from there to charge things to their room. Obviously...you can do this if you steal someone's Key to the Kingdom card...so it's nothing new...but with the wristband you can take this information without the person ever knowing it was stolen.

Yes there is a PIN involved and it is going to be set upon check-in at the resort. A four digit one like most debit cards.

[TikiTikiRoom]

a lot of cool info from you guys. I guess I can take my tinfoil hat off now.

[Wizzard419]

If I recall, from the articles, the pin is only used when a purchase is over a preset total.

[Soarin08]

If I recall, from the articles, the pin is only used when a purchase is over a preset total.

$50 and above.