- The University of Waterloo plans to remove smart vending machines from campus.
- A student discovered an error code that suggested the machine was using facial recognition technology.
- Adaria Vending Services said the technology does not take or store photos of customers.
A Canadian university will remove an array of vending machines from its campus after students discovered signs of facial recognition technology being used on them.
The University of Waterloo's smart vending machines first gained attention this month when Reddit user SquidKid47 shared a photo of them. The photo allegedly showed his M&M brand vending machine displaying the error code: “Invenda.Vending. FacialRecognition.App.exe — Application Error.”
The post sparked speculation from some online users and caught the attention of a University of Waterloo student, who technology news website Ars Technica identified as River Stanley, a writer for local student publication MathNEWS. Stanley researched smart vending machines and discovered they were offered by Adaria Vending Services and manufactured by Invenda Group.canadian publications CTV News It was reported that Mars, the owner of M&M's, owns the vending machine.
In response to the student publication's report, Adaria Vending Services' director of technology services told MathNEWS that “machine technology cannot be used to identify individuals.”
“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,” the statement reads. It's dark. “The technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces, so the machine knows when to activate the purchase interface. It does not take or save an image of the customer.”
The statement cited the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and said the machines were “fully GDPR compliant.” The regulation is part of EU privacy law that governs how companies collect data on citizens.
“At the University of Waterloo, Adalia manages the last-mile fulfillment service and is responsible for the replenishment and logistics of snack vending machines. Adalia does not collect data about users and these M&M We also do not have access to identify the users of the vending machines,” the statement said.
Invenda Group told MathNews that the technology does not store information on “permanent storage media” and the machines are GDPR compliant.
Invendor Group's statement said it is “not involved in the storage, communication, or transmission of images or personally identifiable information.” “The software performs local processing of digital image maps obtained from USB optical sensors in real time, without storing the data on a permanent storage medium or transmitting it to the cloud via the Internet.”
MathNEWS reports that Invenda Group's FAQ states that “only the final data, i.e. a person's presence, estimated age, and estimated gender, is collected and does not include any association with the individual.”
Amid speculation, the University of Waterloo told CTV News the school intends to remove the machines from campus.
“The university is asking that these machines be removed from campus as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have asked that the software be disabled,” University of Waterloo representative Rebecca Elming told the magazine. told.
Representatives for the University of Waterloo, Invenda Group, Adalia Vending Services and Mars did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment sent over the weekend ahead of publication.
Facial recognition technology on college campuses is an ongoing point of tension for students and faculty, with examples popping up around the world. In May 2018, schools in China began monitoring students in classrooms using facial recognition technology that scans every 30 seconds. Two years later, a woman on TikTok claims she failed her exam after being accused of cheating by an AI proctoring system.
In March 2020, students at dozens of US universities protested against facial recognition on university campuses, sparking tensions, the Guardian reported.
“Education is supposed to be a safe place, but this technology hurts the most vulnerable in society,” the DePaul University student told the outlet.
