Alton Towers is using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags to track its visitors according to the Financial Times:
Visitors will be given an RFID-enabled wristband on entry to the Staffordshire amusement park. It will allow them to be identified and videoed by cameras as they go on rides and attractions.
On the face of it, this is nothing to worry about. After all, once leaving the park, visitors are divested of the tags. And, ostensibly, the reason given is that it adds to the day’s entertainment:
The technology will help with park security – allowing parents to locate lost children, for example – but its chief publicised purpose will be to create a unique personalised DVD of the visitors’ day at the park, which can be purchased on leaving.
I’m reminded of a trip a decade or so back when travelling around Almeria. When visiting mini Hollywood Mrs Longrider and I were greeted at the entrance and a photograph taken so that we would have a souvenir of our visit. As I hate being photographed and hate even more being pressured into buying things I don’t want, I declined. This scheme is simply a high tech version of the same ploy. So on its own, I’m less than worried; not least, because theme parks such as Alton Towers are probably the last place on Earth I would choose to visit anyway… :devil:
However, the trend is disturbing. The idea that we should be tracked, even when visiting a theme park; that the ubiquitous cameras are watching our every move (and as it’s for the kiddies’ safety, that’s all okay, then) sends a shiver down my spine. I don’t like being tracked and watched. The panopticon was used in penal reform for a reason; the sense of being observed, yet unable to see ones watcher was designed to cause unease and obedience. So, it is a natural human reaction to feel unsettled by this practice.
As the article mentions there are other uses being applied to the RFID chip that are deeply disturbing. Although the news is not new, one use mentioned is the tracking of employees:
Earlier this year it emerged that CityWatcher.com, an Ohio company, had implanted chips in two of its employees with tags as a way of identifying them.
Similar implants had been tried on 18 employees at the Mexican attorney-general’s office in 2004.
One wonders what goes through the minds of employees who are prepared to submit to such practices. My response to an employer attempting to tag me in the same way as I have tagged one our cats would be to tell them firmly where they can insert their chip. 
But, then, I have a tendency towards independent belligerence, so they probably wouldn’t ask in the first instance.
Going back to Alton Towers, I guess it would be possible to deposit the chip-enabled bracelets somewhere near to the entrance where one could find them again later and leave them there for the duration of the visit; collecting them immediately before leaving. I wonder what the photographs of the day out would look like? :devil:
[Edit] Aha, an update. It seems that the bracelets will be optional, so no need to “accidentally lose” them.