Users are not asked for permission to have their faces scanned or analyzed. (representative picture)

A Canadian university is preparing to remove a series of smart vending machines from its campus over concerns about the covert use of facial recognition technology.according to protector, the controversy erupted when a student took a photo of a snack dispenser displaying the error message Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognition.App.exe on the screen. There was no prior indication that the machine was using the technology, and there were no cameras monitoring students’ activities and purchases. Users are also not asked to allow their faces to be scanned or analyzed.

“If it wasn’t an application error, we wouldn’t have known about it. There was no warning here,” said University of Waterloo student River Stanley, who reported the discovery in the University of Waterloo newspaper. exit.

However, Invenda, the company that makes the machines, defended the technology. It claims the technology complies with EU privacy standards. Notably, the company advertises its use of “demographic detection software,” which it says can determine a customer’s gender and age. It’s unclear whether use of the technology complies with Canadian privacy standards.

Separately, Adaria Vending Services’ director of technical services defended the technology, saying “individuals cannot be identified using the technology in the machines.”

“The most important thing to understand is that these machines do not take or store any photos or images, and the technology in the machines cannot be used to identify individuals,” the statement said. “The technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces,” it added. So the machine knows when to activate the purchasing interface – and never captures or stores an image of the customer.”

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The University of Waterloo, on the other hand, pledged in a statement to dismantle the Invenda machine “as soon as possible.” It also said it had “requested that the software be disabled.”

Meanwhile, students at an Ontario university used gum and paper to cover the hole they thought contained the camera.

Meanwhile, in a similar incident in April, national retailer Canadian Tire violated British Columbia’s privacy laws by using facial recognition technology without notifying customers. At the time, the government privacy commissioner said that even if the store was licensed, the company had failed to demonstrate a legitimate purpose for collecting facial information.