WDW and the biometrics

[draybook]

Does anyone here have experience at passing on the biometrics part of the entry at MK? My family and I aren't too keen on using this, for personal reasons, and we wanted to know how much trouble it is to skip this.

We went through it last year for our first trip because we didn't know about them until we got to the booths and we had a crowd behind us and two kids in tow.

This way we can plan for it and know ahead of time.

[Disney Magic]

Not too sure how it works but I think there is a way around the scan by visiting Guest Relations and then you have to present a photo ID each time you use the pass including park hopping. All honesty I find that to be too much hassle and the finger scan doesn't bother me at all and I must be one of the few who never seems to have trouble with it.

[TDLFAN]

I hate the biometric scanners. I think they are there only to give people a false sense of security. They are a pain in the butt, slow down the line considerably, and make others awared of how ignorant some people in line ahead of you are about how to use these gizmos. I do not know if there is a way to circumnavigate the system.. but there are times when they disconnect it... normally when the parks are corwded and they need to move the lines at the gates.

[Coastierox]

They don't work like one would think they would. I know someone, that after he got divorced, got a date and his mom in (at different times) on his ex wife's AP. Thought it was funny...

[kcnole]

I never understand why people get so upset about the biometrics from a privacy perspective because its not cataloging anything. I understand the complaint that they're too slow because they are, but there's nothing invasive of your privacy in the way they work. They're not mapping your fingerprint and storing it. All they do is measure certain ridges in your fingerprint and then run those values through a calculation that gives a number. That number is what is stored in the database. That number also cannot be reverse engineered in any way to come back to your fingerprint. Its what you call a one way hash value.

In fact as others have said, its not even really that good at giving security. Certainly it would be hard to fake as there's no way to make your fingerprint match the value that's stored, but if you take ten thousand people, several of them will hash out to the same value. That's fine for this purpose however since the chances of you stealing someone's ticket or buying a used one and hashing to the same value are slim.

So in the end, there is absolutely zero reason why anyone should have a privacy concern with this form of biometrics.

[draybook]

And yet I still don't like it. Therefore I will try not to participate in it.

[kcnole]

Never said you had to be logical with your life. Paranoia is a fun way to live.

[aimster]

What cracks me up are the people who push down on the scanner thingy like they're trying to press a button... and then wonder why it's not working. Just place your finger on the thing, numbnut.

[draybook]

Originally Posted by kcnole

Never said you had to be logical with your life. Paranoia is a fun way to live.

Well, there were these guys in black following us around the whole time.....

[mikelieman]

Given the tight financial times, I wonder if the high expenses related to the provisioning and operation of the system are an efficient use of the shareholder's resources?

I think they're dumb b/c the FIRST time I used it I was navigating the stroller through the gate, and so, I presented my left index finger -- as going through the gate -- that's the side closest to the scanner...

Subsequent attempts with my right index finger -- going through the turnstile were of course futile.

Took a while to figure that out. That's just dumb.

[SpaceMTFan]

The canadian government got EVERYTHING on me. I mean not just my finger prints, but also my retina scans... Yet, my life hasn't changed, men in black don't follow me and I understand it is there for security reasons.

Now as for Walt Disney World, beside trying to judge if ticket A is your ticket and not B... they can't do much with it! Its not even fingerprints...

[Monorail Man]

They don't have a copy of your fingerprint. This would be a huge database and too slow to compare images. Instead, a hash (a series of numbers and letters) of your fingerprint is created based off of key areas of the print. This is then generally encrypted by applying an offset (a secure number) to the number, to prevent data loss/theft. When you scan your fingerprint, it's generally not an exact match - instead they set a difference level for how much variance before it's accepted.

Good to note that generally only APs and Resort Guests have Names assigned to the ticket. If you have a general ticket, there's no info tied to it. They just assign the fingerprint hash to the ticket number.

I'd actually say that it's one of the things to worry least about - if Disney is mining data, they have more information when you call them then when you scan your finger.

[draybook]

I appreciate the fact that some people here think I am retarded and feel the need to explain these machines to me.



Nowhere do I say that I don't understand the mechanics of these machines, or their purpose. I simply stated that I don't care to use them and wanted to know the procedure of how to bypass them. That's all I needed to know. Thank you.

[nbodyhome]

A friend of mine shows her ID each time she uses her AP - she doesn't want to be scanned, and I respect that.

[FutureProbeMe]

I think people were giving you the best answers they could and were very respectful, despite your obvious paranoia. Coming back at everyone with your sarcastic reply was pretty rude.