A university in Canada is set to remove a series of smart vending machines from its campus following concerns over the use of facial recognition technology in secret. According to The Guardian, the controversy unfolded when a student captured a photo of the snack dispense displaying an error message - Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognition.App.exe - on the screen. There was no prior indication that the machine was using the technology, nor that a camera was monitoring student movement and purchases. Users were also not asked permission to scan or analyse their faces.
"We wouldn't have known if it weren't for the application error. There's no warning here," River Stanley, the University of Waterloo student who reported on the discovery for the university's newspaper, said, as per the outlet.
However, Invenda, the company that produces the machines, defended the technology. It claimed that the technology is compliant with the European Union's privacy standards. Notably, the company advertises its use of "demographic detection software", which it says can determine the gender and age of customers. It is unclear if the use of technology meets Canada's privacy standards.
Separately, the director of technology services for Adaria Vending Services defended the technology, saying that "an individual person cannot be identified using the technology in the machines".
"What's most important to understand is that the machines do not take or store any photos or images, and an individual person cannot be identified using the technology in the machines," the statement said. "The technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces, so the machine knows when to activate the purchasing interface - never taking or storing images of customers," it added.
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The University of Waterloo, on the other hand, pledged in a statement to remove the Invenda machines "as soon as possible". It also said that it has already "asked that the software be disabled".
In the meantime, students at the Ontario university responded by covering the hole that they believe houses the camera with gum and paper.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident in April, the national retailer Canadian Tire ran afoul of privacy laws in British Columbia after it used facial recognition technology without notifying customers. Back then, the government's privacy commissioner said that even if the stores had obtained permission, the company failed to show a reasonable purpose for collecting facial information.
