To enter any of the Walt Disney World theme parks, you must first scan your ticket (or Magic Band) and then place your finger on the fingerprint scanner. The reason why guests must scan their fingers is to stop ticket fraud and reselling. It's to make sure the tickets you purchase are only being used by you.
Top Tip: On your first day make sure you have a clean finger and hold it down firmly because your first scan will be the one that's used to compare to on your future park days. If you hold your finger slightly off angle or it's dirty, you might have issues scanning in again on other days when your fingers are clean.
The Walt Disney Company privacy policy assures guests that Disney does not store an image of your prints. Instead, a mathematical representation of your fingerprint is created and stored. This is also how TouchID works on Apple products like iPhones and Macs.
The Walt Disney Company Privacy Policy states:
We offer the convenience of Ticket Tag at the entrance of many of our theme parks and water parks. Ticket Tag helps to facilitate ease of re-entry into our Parks and helps prevent fraud.
In order to use Ticket Tag, you simply place your finger on a reader. The system, which utilizes the technology of biometrics, takes an image of your finger, converts the image into a unique numerical value, and immediately discards the image. The numerical value is recalled when you use Ticket Tag with the same ticket to re-enter or visit another Park. Ticket Tag does not store fingerprints.
Whether you have health issues, hygiene concerns, or privacy concerns, you can opt out of scanning your finger each time you enter one of the Walt Disney World theme parks. All you have to do is go to any guest relations window at any of the theme parks or Disney Springs and ask to opt-out. You'll have to show your ticket, photo ID, and fill out a form. A cast member will then update the ticket valid on your account that you have opted out of fingerprint scanning. When you next enter a Walt Disney World theme park, you'll scan your ticket as normal and then a cast member will ask to see your photo ID.
Keep in mind that opting out only applies to the tickets currently attached to your My Disney Experience account. When you next visit, you will have to return to Guest Relations to opt-out on any newly purchased tickets.
