this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Privacy

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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.

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[–] jeffhykin@lemm.ee 254 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (27 children)

It gets worse :/

I looked up the brand (Invenda). Their PDF includes "using AI", "measuring foot traffic", and gathering "gender/age/etc" e.g. facial recognition to estimate a persons age and gender

And in terms of "stored locally" this is straight from their website

The machine comes with a “brain” – Invenda OS – and is connected to the Invenda Cloud, which allows you to manage it remotely and gather valuable environmental, consumer and transactional data. The device can be branded according to your requirements to further enhance your brand presence.

The marketing also so fricken backwards that it reads like satire:

For a consumer, there’s no greater comfort than shopping pressure-free. Invenda Wallet allows consumers to browse, select and pay for products leisurely and privately 🤦‍♂️

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 40 points 2 years ago (5 children)

They have to make it sound like it's private and secure, but it really isn't. It's sad how dystopian our future is becoming.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

I keep telling my zoomer son he needs to read 1984. Not to live his life in fear of it, but to help his awareness of it, and provide an example of what that sort of societal control can look like. It's probably the one thing I nag him about. 5 years later he still hasn't read it. lol

I haven't read it in decades, but I still feel it's hard to miss certain parallels with modern reality when you have.

[–] InputZero@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A good book to pair with 1984 is A Brave New World. They both tackle forms of control but from two different approaches. In A Brave New World there's no need for thought police. Every person is designed and crafted from conception to adulthood to never have a criminal thought.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

That's another good one! Thanks for reminding me of it! Kind of ironically I read most of that book while hiding from my job (that's a story) in the bathroom for short periods of time in my early twenties.

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