Students at the University of Waterloo in Canada were disturbed when they accidentally discovered that the vending machines on campus had a hidden feature that they felt invaded their privacy,— an eerie tale on how surveillance tech has crept its way into all kinds of "smart" appliances.
Alarmed by the glitch, the students did some digging on the manufacturer. On its website, they found a brochure for the vending machines which revealed that they're installed with a "demographic sensor." " 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 toldInvenda has defended itself by claiming these features are conducted in compliance with data privacy laws. "The demographic detection software integrated into the smart vending machine operates entirely locally," Invenda told Stanley in an email.