Disney CEO Bob Iger Receives Letter from Congress about MyMagic+

[Wendy]

It seems that Disney's new MyMagic+ has caught the attention of Senator Ed Markey and he has written to Bob Iger for answers and clarification about how information will be used and stored by Disney.

A copy of the letter is Here

It makes for interesting reading and I look forward to seeing Disney's response.

Do you think this will make any difference to Disney, will they still move forward with MyMagic+ or delay it for a while?

[Keith]

I think they'll feed him some lines and move forward as they always planned to

Thing is, we're constantly giving this information willingly to supermarkets with loyalty cards. Shops are using our cell phone wifi signals to do a very similar thing.

I agree it should be optional and I think there SHOULD be some give and take ie. if you choose to share your every move with us, you'll get this this and this above the normal experience. It'll be hard for them to do that of course which is why I'm sure their first position will be EVERYONE wears one and everyone gets all the benefits.

It's a brave/scary new world not just at Disney, but down at your local grocery store soon as well

[Britchick]

It's not that much more information than they get already from me, they can tell which parks and when, what rides due to fastpass, where I eat, what I spend my money on by using my room key. I don't feel violated

[Keith]

It's not that much more information than they get already from me, they can tell which parks and when, what rides due to fastpass, where I eat, what I spend my money on by using my room key. I don't feel violated

..and to be honest, if it DOES end up with them delivering better information to me then great.

No point marketing kiddie stuff to me but if as I'm walking by a shop my phone beeps and says "hey Keith from the UK you like the haunted mansion and we have great new pins" fantastic. Better that than send me info about kids stuff.

What if it discovers how many of us have left Disney Dining and go off site to eat? Perhaps they'll have a think about things and make some changes I remember the story about them doing a survey on people leaving Disney and they found out how many were going offsite to play mini-golf. Winter/summerland were there within a year.

[Johnie]

I understand the premise and the concern.

In the US we used to have our social security numbers on everything. Then people were concerned about privacy. Sigh, unless you use cash for everything and sign up for nothing, I don't believe there is any privacy anywhere.

[Tink]

I am a data collection freak. I think collecting data and then analyzing it to learn what patterns are revealed is incredibly interesting, and very informative. I think if the information is used to provide a better experience for people, then it's a good thing.

Calling me by name (any CM) is a little creepy though. I do think there needs to be an opt out option for those who are not comfortable with this whole thing, but for the most part, it's a great social science research tool.

However, it only reveals patterns on things that exist. It won't show what we don't do because it's not offered. That is easier to understand in the terms of a grocery shop. It may show what I do purchase, but it can't show what I purchase from another shop because my "local Publix" doesn't carry the item.

So, in some ways, an imperfect system for capturing what could be, or information for new marketing opportunities.

[Keith]

I didn't know you were into the data collection piece some interesting new whitepapers on it but basically they were saying that the TRUE benefit, or scare, comes when they combine databases. So then they really can see where you went after publix and so on.

I guess Disney will feel quite regulated and closely watched, but some of the smaller retailers are already watching signals given off by your cell phone to see exactly how you walk around the shop, where you pause and so on.

[catrancher]

combine databases

And therein lies the rub for me. In certain specific cases, I don't mind a company like Disney collecting information about me to help improve my experience.. It's how they use it that concerns me. For instance, while Disney would have numerous bits of information about me, I wouldn't want them to be able to share that with anyone else without my explicit permission. I give my permission to use my personal information to a specific entity for a specific purpose. Any other use is strictly prohibited from my perspective.

I'll be most interested to read Disney's response to Senator Markey's letter.

Tom (.. private person)

[Keith]

there have been some crazy things done in recent years.

Like you tick the box "company x and its affiliates only" but then company x wants to share data with company y. So company x & y setup company z as an affiliate to both and share the data :/

And that's when all sorts of things can get strange.

[catrancher]

there have been some crazy things done in recent years.

Like you tick the box "company x and its affiliates only" but then company x wants to share data with company y. So company x & y setup company z as an affiliate to both and share the data :/

And that's when all sorts of things can get strange.

Absolutely agree with that.

What I'd like to see them do is say that any non-public personal information (as defined by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act except drop the financial bit in the definition) cannot be disclosed to any other entity under any circumstances. Period. Completely eliminate this "affiliate" nonsense. Anything other than generic type information (like "48% of people know where Waldo is") should be strictly prohibited.

Tom (... I get enough junk mail now. I don't need more.)