Princess Cruises has made the OceanMedallion the cornerstone of its cruising experience. Cruise editor Andrea Zelinski spoke with Princess president John Padgett about the wearable device and its privacy implications.
John Padgett
Q: If a guest isn't comfortable with the Medallion tracking their movements, can they opt out?
A: We do have instances where someone may ask for a hotel key card; at least half the time, by the third day they come back and say, "Hey, I want the Medallion, too"; because when I'm living with you for a week, 10 days, 14, why wouldn't I maximize my experience? Why wouldn't I want it to be unique to me? Why wouldn't I want it to be hassle-free? There's really no reason. Some people are sensitive and maybe have certain personalities, but they see the experiential benefits are so overwhelming. It's a nonissue for us, it's not even remotely an issue for us if people don't want to participate.
Q: What can be turned on and off?
A: You get to choose who you want to be connected to. It's not only you're connected to us, but our platform allows you to be connected to other individuals. Those other individuals can be the people in your travel party, or they can be people you meet that you want to enhance your experience with through connectivity. But you can choose that. The only people that can't choose are if you're a minor and the parent creates your settings for you. A child cannot choose not to be seen by their parent.
Princess Cruises' OceanMedallion and other wearables are key components of cruise line tech ecosystems designed to aid wayfinding, reduce friction and create personalized experiences.
Q: You collect information like music and drink preferences via the app to inform Princess' decisions, but do you use that information elsewhere, like for marketing?
A: We use experiential information for enhancing the experience. We have high integrity in making sure that whether information is used in marketing is a different choice by our guests, that guests make that choice.
Q: Is any of that information sold elsewhere?
A: No. That goes back to why everyone participates in it, because the experience is our product. Your data, your information is not something we would sell or use otherwise. It's sacred to the experience of what we're creating for you.
Q: Is the Medallion hackable?
A: The Medallion itself contains no personalized information. It records no information, and it transmits no personalized information. The Medallion itself is essentially a wearable license plate. They transmit a unique identification number to the connected ecosystem. But the object itself carries no more information than the information that is required by governmental authorities to be on a cruise ship: your name, sail date and ship name. That is only there for regulatory purposes.
Other than that, all information exists within our secure ecosystem, which leverages world-class encryption, abstraction, multifactor authentications, etc. It itself is as secure as it gets.
Q: If I drop my Medallion in a port, can someone else use it? Have you had issues with that?
A: If we have, it's so miniscule that I don't even know about it. ... Every merchant, if there's any issue, can do triple-factor authentication because they have the security photos associated with you participating in the service; you have the physical object, that's two-factor. When you go into port destinations, all guests are advised to carry a picture government ID, even if it's a U.S. location. And so that can be a triple authentication if the merchant wants to do so.