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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I’m dreading for the day they introduce dynamic pricing based on who’s buying and refuses to sell without a full face scan.
People panic about face scan while the ongoing massive privacy breaches exist around online services and electronic devices. The amount of personal data that people pour into smartphones is enormous compared to using that vending machine. We need more GDPR.
Try that with me, and I’ll unplug the fucker and cut the plug off.
Why does privacy matter?
Price discrimination!
Login to LinkedIn to purchase [groceries / diapers / your new mechanical keyboard] 🤢
Dynamic pricing already exists based on what device brand you use
Shut the fuck up, they can hear you!
Fast food franchises always charge more in poor areas, I wonder if dynamic pricing would charge poor people more as well.
Got a source on this? I’d love to read more about that
@oxideseven Not offhand as it’s more something I know from experience but here are some news reports on it from my part of the world:
Poorer pay more
McDonald’s make meals different prices in different areas
And here’s a study from the US that found they charge Black neighbourhoods more.
Edit: looks like chain stores do it with fresh fruit and vegetables too.
Thanks! This is some wild stuff.
What really bothers me is the “measuring foot traffic”. I already refuse to use vending-machines because of the pricing and unhealthyness, but you’re telling me I need to make GDPR takedown requests just for walking to class?
Also this is data that any reasonable company could get in like half an hour of searching and asking.
There is data on how many meals are sold a day at the mensa, how many students are enrolled, how many students live on campus…
Unless the vending machine is in the last corner of the third floor of an half empty building, all this information can be puzzled together to get a good estimate of how many people are passing the machine on a day to day basis.