Vending machines are one of the most ordinary sights in our daily lives. So ordinary that they are almost like street furniture now. Positioned in schools, offices, and street corners, these machines unassumingly cater to our ‘must-have-a-snack’ impulses and hand out bites or drinks whenever we like. But are these machines also silently watching us?
The students of the University of Waterloo in Canada say they might be.
The outraged students of the university are calling for the removal of M&M-branded smart vending machines, which nobody paid much attention to until a Reddit user pointed out that the machines may be using a facial recognition application.
“Hey so why do the stupid m&m machines have facial recognition?” SquidKid47 asked on Reddit and uploaded a picture of an error message that appeared on the screen of the vending machine.
The controversy on campus began after someone noticed an error message pop up on the screen
The post caused quite a stir on campus as students began questioning why a vending machine needed a facial recognition application to dispense items.
A fourth-year student named River Stanley also began looking into the machines for an article in the university publication called MathNEWS.
"We wouldn't have known if it weren't for the application error. There's no warning here," River told CTV News.
Eventually, students of the university began coming up with crude ways of covering what they believed to be the small hole that holds the machine’s camera.
“What students have been doing over the past two weeks is coming up with sticky tack, with chewing gum, with post-it notes, doing anything to cover these sensors,” River added.
River’s investigation for the article found that the smart vending machines are owned by MARS, the maker of M&Ms, and manufactured by a company called Invenda.
The company that provides the machines is called Adaria Vending Services Limited, which responded to River’s report, according to Business Insider.
Students have been trying to cover the sensors with chewing gum, post-it notes, and other items
Image credits: Renan Almeida / Pexels
"An individual person cannot be identified using the technology in the machines," the statement said.
"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 continued. "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."
The technology on the smart vending machine does not store information on "permanent memory mediums," Invenda Group also told MathNews.
"It does not engage in storage, communication, or transmission of any imagery or personally identifiable information," the statement said. "The software conducts local processing of digital image maps derived from the USB optical sensor in real-time, without storing such data on permanent memory mediums or transmitting it over the Internet to the Cloud."
The smart vending machines are expected to be removed from the campus
Image credits: Erik Mclean / Pexels
River’s MathNews article quoted the company’s FAQ sheet and said, "Only the final data, namely presence of a person, estimated age, and estimated gender, is collected without any association with an individual."
University of Waterloo spokesperson Rebecca Elming told CTV News that the vending machines are expected to be removed from the campus.
The concerning discovery also makes one question the extent to which surveillance technology is creeping into our everyday "smart" devices.
"[I’m] kind of shocked just because it's a vending machine, and I don't really think they need to be taking facial recognition," another student, Dilpreet Sandhu, told the outlet.