University vending machine error reveals use of secret facial recognition | A malfunctioning vending machine at a Canadian university has inadvertently revealed that a number of them have been usin...
theguardian.com
University vending machine error reveals use of secret facial recognition | A malfunctioning vending machine at a Canadian university has inadvertently revealed that a number of them have been usin...::Snack dispenser at University of Waterloo shows facial recognition message on screen despite no prior indication
You are viewing a single comment
Mind explaining to me why a vending machine needs to know the demographics of its users?
I guess to collect data for advertisements and product development
It's installed at a university. Seems like you could make a pretty fucking good guess on the demographics of customers just based on that fact.
Best answer
Do you see a lot of advertising for vending machines?
No, but for the companies that make the drinks
Likely for general marketing feedback so not targeting individuals like Facebook, Google, etc. If the vending machine is GDPR compliant then it's not storing individuals PII on the machine (it would be physically insecure) or transmitting PII without consent. And anyway, the marketing team wouldn't care about individuals, they're looking for aggregate trends. I think we should have stricter anti-marketing laws but this is not a dangerous anti-privacy vector. Online marketing is far far worse so if we're concerned with privacy, let's implement laws and policies that protect privacy instead of these BS distractions that don't actually affect people's privacy.
Bananada has no GDPR
A damn shame too.
List of countries for EU to invade:
Who next?
That doesn’t change the claim that the vending machine is GDPR compliant, though.