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.

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.

  • dan1101
    2·
    4 months ago

    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.

      • dan1101
        2·
        4 months ago

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

        • pewter@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 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.