Roller coasters these days are coming with a side of surveillance capitalism.
Driving the news: The Walt Disney Company is being sued over its use of facial recognition technology at its theme parks, a system that the company says is meant to curtail ticket fraud. The plaintiff argues Disney’s use of the technology violates visitors’ privacy rights.
The lawsuit claims that the biometric data being collected by Disney can easily be linked to a person's identity, credit cards, or government-issued ID. Pooled together, the data package could lead to widespread identity fraud in the event of a breach.
Catch-up: Advanced surveillance systems are already staples at some theme parks. Universal Studios has an AI camera system to monitor and adjust lines, while Disney has been adopting the technology across its parks since it first trialled a facial recognition system in 2021.
Disney also ran a study using a facial recognition algorithm at its theme park in Shanghai that analyzed visitors’ demographics and the emotional responses they had to different aspects of the park.
It was also reported this week that Saudi Arabia’s new Riyadh entertainment district, Qiddiya, will use Google’s Gemini technology to track visitors’ behaviour, movement around the park, and spending habits.
Why it matters: AI surveillance systems, which were once reserved for high-security areas like airports, have quietly made their way into public spaces like amusement parks, malls, and even residential neighbourhoods.
Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood is currently exploring building Canada’s first virtual gated community with a controversial AI surveillance system.
In another eerie example from a few years ago, Cadillac Fairview was caught using hidden cameras in its mall directories to collect facial data from five million Canadians to determine their age, gender, and what they were shopping for.
Our take: We give away a lot of similar information in an average day of scrolling online, but there’s something particularly Big Brother-ish about having security cameras analyze how often we smile on a trip to Disneyland.—LA
