Vending machines had eyes all over this Ontario campus — until the students wised up
CBC
An Ontario university is pulling dozens of vending machines that were tracking the age and gender of customers in the latest example of pushback against technology that tests the boundaries of privacy rules.
The move comes amid opposition from University of Waterloo students, who became aware of the technology after a Reddit user spotted an on-screen error message on one of the machines earlier this month, about an apparent problem with its facial recognition program.
"The natural question that follows there is, 'Why does it have a facial recognition app? How can this error even exist?'" said River Stanley, a fourth-year computer science and business student who broke the story in the campus journal mathNEWS.
The university says it has asked that all 29 machines, from the Switzerland-based company Invenda, be removed "as soon as possible," and that the software be disabled in the meantime.
"We thank our students for bringing this matter to our attention," said university spokesperson Rebecca Elming.
She did not respond to a followup question from CBC News about whether the university was planning to change its procurement process if machines with facial analysis technology were showing up unbeknownst to administrators.
Invenda says the machines use facial analysis, not facial recognition, software, and that it isn't storing data or photos.
The company says its technology is mainly used to tell when a person is standing in front of a vending machine, and to change the screen from "standby" mode, which shows ads, to "sales" mode, which shows different products.
Critics say that explanation isn't good enough, and that customers should know whether they're being watched and be given the choice to opt in.
"There was no [camera] marking on these vending machines at all," said Stanley.
Stanley investigated further, contacted the vending machine operator and Invenda, and published a story that was later picked up by CTV Kitchener.
Approximately 100 Invenda vending machines have been shipped to Canada, the company said, although it's not clear if all of them have been installed.
No one from Invenda was available for an interview Monday, a spokesperson said, but in an email the company emphasized that its software is used for people detection and facial analysis, not facial recognition.
"People detection solely identifies the presence of individuals whereas, facial recognition goes further to discern and specify individual persons," the statement said.
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