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Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting facial-recognition data without their consent.
The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, "Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe," displayed after the machine failed to launch a facial recognition application that nobody expected to be part of the process of using a vending machine.
Why do you need facial recognition data to prompt more vending machine sales?
Facial-recognition data is typically used to prompt more vending machine sales.
originally posted by: Arbitrageur
If it wasn't for the M&M vending machines on a college campus displaying an error code about some facial recognition technology in the vending machine, we and the students on campus still might not even know the machine had a camera and was using the secret facial recognition app identified in the error code:
Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students
Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting facial-recognition data without their consent.
The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, "Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe," displayed after the machine failed to launch a facial recognition application that nobody expected to be part of the process of using a vending machine.
That's a real screenshot, but I'm not sure how accurate the title of that article is about the secret face image database. That's certainly implied from the error message, though the company denies it goes that far, and I'm very skeptical of the company's claim.
My first question is, why does a vending machine even need facial recognition?
The first line in that article says:
Why do you need facial recognition data to prompt more vending machine sales?
Facial-recognition data is typically used to prompt more vending machine sales.
Something seems fishy about this and I wonder who is really behind it.
What does ATS think?
Does this seem fishy to you?
Do vending machines really need to use facial recognition on you?
What are they REALLY doing with the facial recongition app? I suppose if they identify your approximate age they might jack up the prices for you if they think you are an older professor who has more money than the young college students? But that doesn't seem right.
This caused such an uproar on campus that the vending machines are being removed.
Now that the word is out, I wonder what will happen to this vending machine company? Will more machines be removed?
There is also the bigger question: Are there other, unexpected places with hidden surveillance technology?
Who would have expected this in vending machines?
But then the unplugged machine wouldn't dispense the M&M snack I needed before my next class. It's hard to pay attention to the professor when you're hungry and your stomach is growling, and the other students give you looks when they hear that noise.
originally posted by: Venkuish1
Unplug the vending machines and that's the end of story. Everything works with electricity and if you don't want another spy either unplugged it or never buy anything from it and let the business die.
There is also the bigger question: Are there other, unexpected places with hidden surveillance technology?
They want to put targeted ads everywhere, I swear that's what it is.
originally posted by: TheValeyard
So, I must ask something, because I don't often get to chat with a lizard person:
Can you shapeshift individual parts of your body,
and if so, could you turn your tatas into lawn sprinklers or Nerf guns?
That'd be dope.
a reply to: GENERAL EYES
originally posted by: Arbitrageur
the M&Ms
Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students
What does ATS think?