Ashley Belanger reports via Ars Technica: Canada-based University of Waterloo is rushing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after students were outraged after discovering they were secretly collecting facial recognition data without their consent. The scandal stems from the error message “Invenda.Vending” displayed on campus vending machines after a student, using his SquidKid47 alias, failed to launch a facial recognition application that no one expected to participate. .FacialRecognitionApp.exe” was posted on Reddit. The process of using a vending machine. “Hey, so why does his stupid M&M machine have facial recognition?” thought SquidKid47. The Reddit post sparked an investigation by her fourth-year student, River Stanley, who was writing for a university publication called MathNEWS. […]
The MathNEWS study tracked responses from companies responsible for smart vending machines on the University of Waterloo campus. “The most important thing to understand is that machines do not take or store photos or images, and machine technology cannot be used to identify individuals,” Adaria Vending Services told MathNEWS. So this technology works as a motion sensor that detects faces.” Therefore, the machine knows when to activate the purchase interface and does not take or save images of the customer. ” According to Adaria and Invenda, students do not need to worry about data privacy as their vending machines are “fully compliant” with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the world’s strictest data privacy law. there is no. “These machines are fully GDPR compliant and are used in many facilities across North America,” Adaria's statement said. “At the University of Waterloo, Adaria manages the last-mile fulfillment service and is responsible for the replenishment and logistics of snack vending machines. Adaria does not collect data about users and these M&M We also do not have access to identify vending machine users.” […]
But University of Waterloo students like Stanley are now questioning Invenda's “commitment to transparency” in the North American market, as the company appears to be openly violating Canadian privacy laws. Stanley told CTV News. On Reddit, one student joked that SquidKid47's face “crashed” the machine, while another asked, “Do any pre-law students want to file a class action lawsuit?” One commenter summed up the student's frustration by typing in all caps, “I hate these machines! I hate these machines! I hate these machines!”