Unhappy about having to check in on Medallion app

[SargassoPirate]

One can simply show up at the pier with your cruise reservation paperwork and request your  medallion there and forgo the app entirely.

 

Once on board, simply use the medallion to open your door, and again forgo the app completely.

 

I've done it on five cruises since the restart and it makes for a more relaxing, unplugged cruise without trying to figure out wonky technology.

[sloopsailor]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

And how do you know this ? I accept that in real time they can tell where you are, but is the information actually stored ?

How do you avoid the cctv that covers all the public areas of the ship? You can be traced just as easily by that, or do you wear a disguise when sitting in bars,  restaurants etc ?

 

I never thought about the cctv cameras. I guess I'll just have to wear a disguise. I wonder if this one will work?

 

 

Ah, who am I kidding. I am not the paranoid conspiracy theory type that thinks the whole world is out to take advantage of me. So no disguise for me. I'll enjoy the benefits of the Medallion and have myself a good time rather than be afraid of being spied upon all the time. Life is too short to voluntarily turn it into a dystopian society.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, sloopsailor said:

 

I never thought about the cctv cameras. I guess I'll just have to wear a disguise. I wonder if this one will work?

 

 

Ah, who am I kidding. I am not the paranoid conspiracy theory type that thinks the whole world is out to take advantage of me. So no disguise for me. I'll enjoy the benefits of the Medallion and have myself a good time rather than be afraid of being spied upon all the time. Life is too short to voluntarily turn it into a dystopian society.

Absolutely.  There are far more important things in life to worry about than the possibility that Princess will know that I spent a total of 33 hours in Vines on my last cruise !

[JF - retired RRT]

15 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Your frustrations are coming in loud but not clear.  I am going to try to answer a few of your concerns (that have been well documented on many threads).

 

YOU do not need to have a phone (unless traveling to Australia).  YOU can take all of your documents with you to the port and someone will check you in.

 

YOU can print out your luggage tags by signing in to your web based Personalizer.

 

YOU can ask for a old fashion cruise card to open your cabin door.  Big Brother won't be watching you then.  But neither will YOU get the benefits of the medallion (different from Medallion app).

 

I hope you will enjoy your cruise once on board.

 

What she said!!

Especially, the luggage tags. If you have a computer and a printer, simply log in to Princess.com. Select your cruise "Manage this Booking". At the top of the page, choose "Luggage Tag & Travel Summary". Choose a tag (if there's more than one going) and click "Print".

[richsea]

9 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

  Then medallallion does not need to contain a lot of information. It just needs to be able to ID you. It could be with a simple number code. But that simple number code gives much more information than just the number.

 

 They use the tracking system to log everything you do on the ship, anyplace you go, what you drink, how much you drink, the times that you do this, the places, track all your purchases, track how long you spend in different parts of the ship. And all this information builds profiles of you.   If you go to the med center, and get medications that will be tracked.  

 

And under the terms of use Princess Cruises is free to sell this information to anyone they want. Let's say for example  that because the stairs were wet you slipped and fell and had major medical issues.  They could use your pattern of drinking as a defence. 

 

No one can be a private person if they allow this tracking to happen.

Besides using your potential abuse of alcohol as a possible defense them having wet stairs, what are you against them finding out about you?  I’m really curious, not trying to be snarky. In today’s society, with cctv cameras & cell phones everywhere, if we’re afraid of being tracked, we have to never leave our house.

[JF - retired RRT]

11 hours ago, windsor26 said:

Strangely enough I lost my medallion on a cruise and instead of using the facility to find out where it was so I could retrieve it when I reported it at the pursers desk they issued me with a new one?????????

Probably easier than searching for the old one. They deactivated the old one and if it was turned in threw it in the trash.

[Expat Cruise]

8 minutes ago, richsea said:

Besides using your potential abuse of alcohol as a possible defense them having wet stairs, what are you against them finding out about you?  I’m really curious, not trying to be snarky. In today’s society, with cctv cameras & cell phones everywhere, if we’re afraid of being tracked, we have to never leave our house.

 Well I do not drink so that is not an issue for me. I just do not want to be tracked and profiled. I have several businesses here in Asia, including an IT business.... I see what my workers can do with a little information. I thought just like you what harm can this do... until they showed me. My people work in the security protection side... but many with the same skills work at stealing and profiting from others.  I have learned it is best to be very protective. Even going past this I really do not want Princess Cruises selling my information... and as of now no way to opt out of this. So I will use RFD blockers and cause issues within their system because they have left me no other choice.

[sloopsailor]

16 minutes ago, Expat Cruise said:

 Well I do not drink so that is not an issue for me. I just do not want to be tracked and profiled. I have several businesses here in Asia, including an IT business.... I see what my workers can do with a little information. I thought just like you what harm can this do... until they showed me. My people work in the security protection side... but many with the same skills work at stealing and profiting from others.  I have learned it is best to be very protective. Even going past this I really do not want Princess Cruises selling my information... and as of now no way to opt out of this. So I will use RFD blockers and cause issues within their system because they have left me no other choice.

 

I am unclear why you even want to cruise considering that all cruise ships are "tracking" you with the hundreds of CCTV cameras on board. Plus, every time you use your medallion (or key card) to purchase something or to get off and on the ship, they are "tracking" you. They have a record of everything you purchased or used if they want to sell that information. 

 

A ship is an enclosed society unlike most any other environment. Everything you do can be recorded in some way. There is no way around this other than take a different type of vacation. 

 

Placing your medallion in an RFD blocker is a waste of energy because of all the cameras on board. You won't be causing them any issues. If they want to track you, the can do so by monitoring the cameras with face recognition technology and pulling up your medallion or key card activity.

 

The only person having to deal with "issues" is you due to your limited use of the benefits the medallion provides. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by sloopsailor

[wowzz]

12 minutes ago, Expat Cruise said:

I just do not want to be tracked and profiled

Good luck with that !

Short of living off grid, you are being tracked and profiled incessantly 24/7. 

The medallion is the least  of  your worries !

[Ride-The-Waves]

The real issue is that the Medallion App is terrible technology.  Nobody is against technological improvements.  Happens all the time.  Good stuff as long as it improves and simplifies everyday life without security compromises.  Problem is that Princess's version is just terrible technology and does NOT work as "advertised."    And, Princess knows this.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Ride-The-Waves

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, Expat Cruise said:

 Well I do not drink so that is not an issue for me. I just do not want to be tracked and profiled. I have several businesses here in Asia, including an IT business.... I see what my workers can do with a little information. I thought just like you what harm can this do... until they showed me. My people work in the security protection side... but many with the same skills work at stealing and profiting from others.  I have learned it is best to be very protective. Even going past this I really do not want Princess Cruises selling my information... and as of now no way to opt out of this. So I will use RFD blockers and cause issues within their system because they have left me no other choice.

you can always make use of the do not use/sell my information forms provided. 

[d9704011]

I'm not unhappy about using the Medallion app to check-in, but I do want to complain!

 

How come Princess will ship the Medallions to US (and PR) addresses, but not to Canada?  I think it's unfair that I can't wear that thing around my neck until I get to Fort Lauderdale.

[richsea]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Good luck with that !

Short of living off grid, you are being tracked and profiled incessantly 24/7. 

The medallion is the least  of  your worries !

That’s kind of why I asked the question. There are so many ways one is tracked in today’s society that about the only thing you can do to stop it is maybe live a Monk’s life. But, each of us  have our own comfort level, & if taking certain precautions to feel  secure makes us more comfortable, we should by all means go for it.

[caribill]

19 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

How come Princess will ship the Medallions to US (and PR) addresses, but not to Canada?  I think it's unfair that I can't wear that thing around my neck until I get to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Are there any Canadian import issues or tariffs that would make it difficult to assure they would arrive at Canadian addresses on time?

[cr8tiv1]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

Not on my Amazon Fire tablet or my Nook tablet.

 

What can I say?  You should have invested in APPLE products instead.  I am so sorry...

[caribill]

10 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

What can I say?  You should have invested in APPLE products instead.  I am so sorry...

 

Or Apple stock way back when

[cr8tiv1]

42 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Or Apple stock way back when

 

I was super excited when my stock split 1:7.  But "should" have bought it back in the 70's when we started to "buy" apple products.  Oh, the foolish things we didn't do.

[Ride-The-Waves]

1 hour ago, c-boy said:

you can always make use of the do not use/sell my information forms provided. 

One should not have to ask for a corporation/company to not sell or profit off your information; they should have to ask you if they can use/profit off you in a provided form.  

Edited October 24, 2022 by Ride-The-Waves

[Guest ldtr]

12 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

  Then medallallion does not need to contain a lot of information. It just needs to be able to ID you. It could be with a simple number code. But that simple number code gives much more information than just the number.

 

 They use the tracking system to log everything you do on the ship, anyplace you go, what you drink, how much you drink, the times that you do this, the places, track all your purchases, track how long you spend in different parts of the ship. And all this information builds profiles of you.   If you go to the med center, and get medications that will be tracked.  

 

And under the terms of use Princess Cruises is free to sell this information to anyone they want. Let's say for example  that because the stairs were wet you slipped and fell and had major medical issues.  They could use your pattern of drinking as a defence. 

 

No one can be a private person if they allow this tracking to happen.

Hate to be the one to tell you but even before the medallion they knew exactly what you ordered, where you ordered it, what drinks you purchased, what excursions you purchased, what ports to got off ship in, etc.  Any time you presented a card it was tracked.  Though it is unlikely that much of that information was sold to outside parties.  I certainly have not gotten any e-mails from other business to my Princess contact information (I use a different e-mails for various companies), though they are certainly using it to understand the likes of their passengers.

 

So really what additional information do you really think  they can get from medallion.  They could certainly see when you are in your room (used for the initial safety drill), the app can certainly identify where other members of your party are, but do you really think that they will collect terrabytes of basically worthless information dealing with where everybody is at all times?  Very unlikely.  They might use it to determine how many people really attend a specific activity (in the old days that would have been estimated either from video or a crew member doing a count or estimate (though usually that would be more was the venue full or  some estimate of a percentage.  With the new system they might be able to do a count of numbers at a specific point in time though the system would need to be set up in advance to capture such data to minimize the amount of data to store and the amount of processing needed.  Even if they were to use it in that way the item of interest would be number not specifically who. Again a lot of that data was already available via the old cruise card system, video camera, and crew member estimates.

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, sloopsailor said:

 

I am unclear why you even want to cruise considering that all cruise ships are "tracking" you with the hundreds of CCTV cameras on board. Plus, every time you use your medallion (or key card) to purchase something or to get off and on the ship, they are "tracking" you. They have a record of everything you purchased or used if they want to sell that information. 

 

A ship is an enclosed society unlike most any other environment. Everything you do can be recorded in some way. There is no way around this other than take a different type of vacation. 

 

Placing your medallion in an RFD blocker is a waste of energy because of all the cameras on board. You won't be causing them any issues. If they want to track you, the can do so by monitoring the cameras with face recognition technology and pulling up your medallion or key card activity.

 

The only person having to deal with "issues" is you due to your limited use of the benefits the medallion provides. 

Just as what flights you take, what airlines you fly on, if you use Uber, or Lyft or many other forms of transportation.  Certainly any time you use a credit card to buy any products the stores in which you made that purchase certainly knows who you are and what you purchased.

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Are there any Canadian import issues or tariffs that would make it difficult to assure they would arrive at Canadian addresses on time?

Between the postage cost and sending electronics (probably not manufactered in the US) to non-US addresses it's likely too expensive, unpredictable and would probably run afoul of import and duty rules.  I can wait until arrival at the cruise terminal but my wife will miss out on an opportunity to properly accessorize until the ship's shops open.

[Princessfan20]

13 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

 

 

No one can be a private person if they allow this tracking to happen.

 

The genie is out of the bottle and there is no way of putting it back.  

 

We have sailed a number of cruises using Medallion when it first came out and how it is now and it is basically more of a convenience than a threat IMHO.  

 

Every keystroke a person takes on a computer is stored somewhere and traceable and trackable.  

It is just the way the world is now.  We are always being monitored whether it is by our telephone, car,    television and internet service, bank/credit card company, local store and so on.

[SargassoPirate]

4 hours ago, Expat Cruise said:

 Well I do not drink so that is not an issue for me. I just do not want to be tracked and profiled. I have several businesses here in Asia, including an IT business.... I see what my workers can do with a little information. I thought just like you what harm can this do... until they showed me. My people work in the security protection side... but many with the same skills work at stealing and profiting from others.  I have learned it is best to be very protective. Even going past this I really do not want Princess Cruises selling my information... and as of now no way to opt out of this. So I will use RFD blockers and cause issues within their system because they have left me no other choice.

Just curious, do you keep "location" turned off on your phone?

 

[caribill]

6 minutes ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

It is just the way the world is now.  We are always being monitored whether it is by our telephone, car,    television and internet service, bank/credit card company, local store and so on.

 

That's for sure.

 

My cable service tells me I have viewed a program if I ask for it on demand and had seen it before, even many months before.

 

My grocery store will warn me about a product recall for an item I purchased in the past there.

 

And within seconds my credit card company knows where in the world I am using a card.

 

And if I apply and get a new credit card, within 24 hours (starting a few seconds after a card is approved) I will get about 15 notices from various financial institutions about the new card.

 

 

[Kay S]

8 minutes ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

The genie is out of the bottle and there is no way of putting it back.  

 

 

Thanks, Sunshine.

 

So what if someone wants to avoid the Medallion for whatever reason.  I don't think it's my job to lecture them on that subject.  Whatever happened to "live and let live"?