Disneyland Paris: Why are guests now being photographed at the park entrance?

Indeed, until now it was possible to enter Disneyland without spending a penny, even with a ticket in someone else's name. All you had to do was wait for someone to leave the park, retrieve their ticket, and then enter yourself with the ticket still valid for the day.

From now on, every person will be photographed, and the photo will be "linked to the adult admission ticket in order to control visitor access," Disneyland Paris states on its website. This system already exists at other resorts: guests at the Disneyland Resort in California (USA) must have their photo taken, and those at Walt Disney World in Florida are even subject to fingerprinting, notes the Journal du Geek.

Disneyland Paris specifies that the photos will be deleted one week later and will not be processed using facial recognition technology. Each visitor can refuse this screening and the photo by presenting an identity document or proof of affiliation with the company that purchased the ticket.

A complaint has nonetheless been filed with the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), which confirmed that the report is under investigation. The data protection watchdog will notably have to verify that the measure complies with the GDPR, which has been in force since 2018.