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Bloomberg, NY Post

How the Disney Parks Gather Info on Guests, and Why That’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

Jul 22, 2019  •  Post A Comment

“The ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ is also one of the most surveilled — with Disney honchos using the park’s wearable ‘MagicBands’ and smartphone apps to reportedly spy on guests and collect data on not just their buying habits, but also what rides their kids like and who their favorite characters are,” The New York Post reports, citing a report by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg notes that the “unfettered access” to customer data has triggered a surge in operating profit, which rose 18% last year to $4.5 billion.

The company has reportedly been using the data it collects on park guests to solve logistics problems at both Disneyland and Disney World.

“The move — when done by tech companies such as Facebook — has been blasted by many in the past. But Disney hasn’t gotten the same treatment,” The Post reports. “As a result, it’s reportedly investing more money into its theme parks than it did when acquiring Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm combined.”

Disney’s recently unveiled virtual reservation system has reportedly created reduced wait times and cut down on overcrowding at Disneyland.

“According to Bloomberg, its MagicBand system brought down transaction times by 30 percent — while also boosting park capacity,” The Post reports. “The wearable tech keeps track of guests’ spending habits, what they are riding in the park, where they are eating and what characters they’re stopping to see. It can also serve as a hotel key and electronic meal plan voucher, should the person be staying at a Disney resort.”

Disney says the data mining enables it to “keep the parks running with extreme efficiency.”

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