EpicMix vs. Ski Pass Defender

EpicMix is an iPhone app or something offered at Vail Resorts. It keeps track of your snow days, vertical feet, runs, time on the slopes etc. and of course will allow you to annoyingly “share” all of that information with all of your closest friends on Facebook. It’s like FourSquare for Vail. I’ve already seen more than enough tweets and FB status updates representing people’s EpicMix accomplishments to make me want to punch babies, so I already don’t like it and I know it’s just going to get worse (more annoying and inundating) throughout the season.

And there’s at least one significant potential privacy concern… The first time someone crashes their Subaru driving back to Denver on I-70 from Vail in a snowstorm, the insurance company’s adjusters are going to immediately ask for or subpoena the EpicMix data. They’ll see that homeboy got there at 9am (which means he left his house in the ‘burbs at 530am), logged 30,000 vertical feet over 6 hours and had two beers after, before starting the drive home. And then they’ll use that data to deny his claim on grounds that he shouldn’t have been driving because of exhaustion, fatigue, etc.

I guess if you don’t want all that nonsense or if you don’t want me to punch more babies just don’t download the app. Unfortunately if you’re a Vail Resorts season pass holder, you’re boned. The app is embedded in the season passes.

That’s where Ski Pass Defender comes in. The guy who invented this device was a former Vail Resorts employee who was concerned about the resort having access to all of the information and broadcasting information over RF. They eventually caught wind of his attempt to thwart their new plans and told him to quit selling the Ski Pass Defender, or give up his job. He chose the high road, and is no longer employed by Vail Resorts. For $15 or so you can buy the Ski Pass Defender which blocks the RFID chip from transmitting your information.

This means it also blocks Vail Resorts (or anyone else, for that matter) from collecting, aggregating and storing your information. So if you’re a privacy person or you just don’t want a giant megalithic Wall Street corporation having access to your “data” then the Ski Pass Defender is something you might wanna consider.

EpicMix will probably be successful because they’re pandering to your overwhelming sense of self-centeredness, the “I am the center of the universe” syndrome which causes you to think that people actually give a shit that you just “checked in” to a particular coffee shop or rode up a certain chairlift or have a new “pin” on your electronic profile… What they do with this data in the long run is anyone’s guess. Of course they’re telling you that they’re trying to make your experience more enjoyable but if that were true they’d spend less time promoting the billion dollar capital investments that they make every year (which put the sport more out of reach to more people) and more time trying to figure out what most of us actually want from a ski resort.

News flash: if Vail Resorts had conducted market research they would have found out that “pins” on a website were nowhere on anyone’s list of priorities.

About David Zemens

David is a Michigan native; snowboard addict who spends too much time shredding small hills in the dark. He is 32 and works a day job doing market research-y stuff.

http://www.angrysnowboarder.com angrysnowboarder

The chip is located in the center of the pass you can drill right through it. Ultimately what people believe they’re going to do is track everyone and where they are on the mountain at all times, it hasn’t gotten to that level but the day will come I think.
http://www.agnarchy.com David Zemens

i think it’s less about tracking your every move than it is about passive data collection; activity & spend habits, etc. Also a relatively passive way to do targeted mailing/marketing/emailing/etc.

But it also wouldn’t surprise me if they decide to use it to track everyone at all times…
EmpoyeeatVail

OMG! How misinformed can one be? You are so misguided. Save the $15 and wrap your pass in tin foil if you are that paranoid! VR could give a rip about your beer consumption! And you can only be tracked if you create a login on the EpicMix site. Stop spreading crap loser!
http://www.agnarchy.com David Zemens

Employee at Vail: You are an idiot. There’s no “misinformation” in my post. EpicMix tracks your info, Ski Pass Defender blocks the RFID. Plain and simple.

I’m going to go out on a limb and peg you as a minimum wage snow carnie probably a boot monkey or liftie. You have no idea what VR is going to do with the data (in fairness, I don’t either so it’s all speculation at this point) – maybe they “don’t give a rip” about your beer consumption but the fact is that if it’s there and if it’s stored in a databse somewhere, it can be subpoenaed – same with your vertical feet skied in a day, time on the slopes, etc… That’s a valid concern, regardless of whether Vail plans to do anything with the data. But it’s not about “beer consumption”, you totally missed the mark. it’s just another corporate gimmick disguised as a social network which is designed to capture more and more information so they can push more and more marketing, advertising, etc. at us.

And what’s this garbage about “you can only be tracked if you create a login”??

They may not be able to link you to your RFID chip until/unless you create a login and of course nothing will be visible to the public, but each RFID chip must have some unique identifier that they can track even if you don’t create a profile – just like my grocery store discount card; they have no idea it’s me per se, but all of my spend/shopping habits are definitely tracked and stored in a database at Kroger somewhere. There are hundreds of ways that someone with SAS can manipulate data in a commercially valuable way even if the individual data points are not personally identifiable.

You fail.
http://www.twitter.com/mikeslone Mike

There is no need to spend money to disable your RF chip in a Vail Resorts pass. You can take your pass to a season pass or lift ticket office and Vail Resorts will gladly disable the RF chip for you.

http://www.agnarchy.com/ David Zemens

Thanks Mike! I think the idea behind the ski pass defender is that there may be times when you are OK with tracking your info, but other times when you might not want to track it. So for those who want to selectively log data sometimes but not other times, disabling the RF chip won’t work for them.

http://www.SkiPassDefender.com Jon

The PassDefender has several reasons for existing. There are 700 ski areas around the world using some form of RFID passes. Some link to more than data usage such as “stored value”, all are able to be skimmed and cloned with varying levels of ease/difficulty. However with some education between the user and ski area these risks can be mitigated.
VR DOES take usage information regardless if a user signs up for Epicmix or not. When a user elects to buy a pass from VR they have allowed data collection. David Z is correct to say that we don’t know exactly all the uses for the data. Some will be mountain ops, marketing, etc… But the VR privacy policy also states that VR can give the data to their affiliates, and the affiliates may use the data and/or share it with their affiliates. This is not Paranoia, this how data sharing among affiliates work.
I choose to ski untracked, yet like the convenience of RF Technology to be scanned through my jacket at the base lifts, that is where SPD comes in.
http://www.angrysnowboarder.com angrysnowboarder

Man that Employee is a fucktard they didn’t even spell Employee right in their name. Anyways here’s how it was broken down to me regardless if you log in to Epicmix or sign up for it Vail can track everything you do that’s associated with it, when you opt in you can see a good majority of what they see. It is what it is.

Now the bigger concern is people having their credit cards/identities stolen due to it being on a RF chip.
James

I am very impressed with the EpicMix app, and it definitely keeps me entertained on the lift! It’s so fun to track friends and achieve pins, so i couldn’t care about the privacy aspect. Another must have app for the mountain would have to be from my employer, DISH Network. I use their Remote Access app to stream live TV and DVR recordings on the lift! I even watched the Super Bowl live while taking runs at key.

EpicMix vs. Ski Pass Defender

About David Zemens

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