Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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'Facial recognition' error message on vending machine sparks concern at University of Waterloo (kitchener.ctvnews.ca)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

135 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A set of smart vending machines at the University of Waterloo is expected to be removed from campus after students raised privacy concerns about their software.

The machines have M&M artwork on them and sell chocolate and other candy. They are located throughout campus, including in the Modern Languages building and Hagey Hall.

Earlier this month, a student noticed an error message on one of the machines in the Modern Languages building. It appeared to indicate there was a problem with a facial recognition application.

"We wouldn't have known if it weren't for the application error. There's no warning here," said River Stanley, a fourth-year student, who investigated the machines for an article in the university publication, mathNEWS.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Best case scenario the machine has some sort of standard software with facial recognition code, but no hardware in the machine. Would he interesting to know.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately its got the hardware for it https://www.invendagroup.com/vending-machines

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh geez. These corporations are trying to be evil every way they can.

[–] Kolrami 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

MARS isn't doing a good job of proving you wrong.

According to Invenda’s website, the Smart Vending Machines can detect the presence of a person, their estimated age and gender.

I'm confident I don't need a vending machine to know any of that.