Disney Fingerprints Visitors -- Liberals Hide Under Beds

painting by Ron English

Boing Boing: Walt Disney World fingerprints visitors by Cory Doctorow

Disney is now fingerprinting visitors to Walt Disney World as part of its ticket-fraud prevention scheme. They're not being very transparent about it, either: there are no signs posted about the data collection or retention, and Disney's official line is that they're not collecting fingerprints, just mathematical representations of same.
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Now that our national immune system has begun to attack us in a terrible anaphylactic spasm -- indiscriminate NSA wiretaps, meaningless TSA security theater, secret aviation rules and no-fly lists, "free speech zones," suspension of habeas corpus and all the rest -- it's absolutely irresponsible to gather this kind of information and leave it where the savage toddlers of the national security apparat might find it and wreak havoc with it.

For me, the worst part of this is that it conditions us to get used to being treated like crooks. If you were asked for a fingerprint when you bought a doughnut, you'd rightly leave the store. Why should an amusement park get a walk?

Maybe it's because the local doughnut shop gets a tiny fraction of the crowds that Disney gets? Try thinking, Mr. Doctorow.

On the other hand, if some lunatic entered one of Disney's parks and started blasting his nine millimeter, Doctorow would be screaming about the lax security and corporate America's greed and callousness.

I know most of the liberal nation prefers privacy over any form of life, but some perspective is in order. It is significantly more frightening to have some wack job trying to harm me (or my family) than a machine recording my fingerprint to be placed in some database that no one gives a fuck about until a crime occurs.

Also important is the fact that Disney isn't the government; it's a private entity and can (within reason and within the law) make whatever rules it wishes. If you don't like Disney's policies, you're free not to go there. Hundreds of thousands of people pass through their parks DAILY. Disney has a huge obligation in making sure all of its parks are uber-safe. I admit that I am not thrilled with any security at all, which tends to delay things and can be an overall pain in the arse. Yet, I blame the bastard elements who storm schools, universities, and malls.

Not Disney.

~ Sisyphus, cross-posted at The Sisyphus Files.