- Smart vending machines on university campuses have been found to be using facial recognition technology.
- After the news made headlines, the vending machines were removed from campus.
- One expert says the technology is likely to become even more widespread and carries some serious risks.
Last week, it was revealed that some smart vending machines were using facial recognition technology, causing an uproar on college campuses.
Machines' use of facial recognition technology first attracted attention. Reddit user SquidKid47 I posted a photo earlier this month. A writer for the student publication MathNews subsequently investigated the claim and published a report.
After much publicity surrounding the technology, the University of Waterloo eventually removed vending machines from campus.
Not everyone expects to have their face scanned at a vending machine, but this practice may actually be more common than you think.
Professor Chris Russell from the Oxford Internet Institute told Business Insider that facial recognition technology has become much cheaper and more popular.
“It's very easy and cheap to incorporate this technology into other systems, which means it's going to be everywhere,” he says. “It's going to become more and more common.”
In the case of the machines removed from college campuses, Russell said they did not appear to be actively using facial recognition capabilities.
“Judging by the error message, it appears that there is a huge amount of additional code built in that could perform facial recognition, but it doesn't seem to be enabled,” he said.
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No one knows exactly how widespread the use of facial recognition technology is or how private companies are using it.
However, the most common use is probably advertising.
Russell said the main benefit of implementing this technology is that it can tell advertisers that their ads are personalized to specific customers.
“These target a specific age and a specific gender, and we can guarantee that the ad will start when someone approaches the screen,” he said.
Companies are more likely to use this technology as a motion sensor rather than as a sinister surveillance tactic. Data obtained from facial recognition technology may also not be stored.
In the case of smart vending machines, the company providing the machines told BI that the machines are “fully GDPR compliant.” The regulation is part of EU privacy law that governs how companies collect data on citizens.
Adaria Vending Services reassured customers that “the machine's technology cannot be used to identify individuals,” adding that the machines do not take or store photos or images.
The smart vending machine technology acts as a type of motion detector that triggers the purchasing interface, a representative said.
attractive hacking target
This kind of use is relatively harmless as long as everything works properly.
However, problems can arise if a malicious attacker gains access to the underlying technology.
Most companies using this technology end up destroying data, but using facial recognition means these machines can become “hidden webcams” connected to the internet. Russell said.
“This is an attractive target for hackers,” he says. “You can potentially imagine hospitals setting up places like these vending machines or abortion clinics.
“If you think about it that way, it's a very easy way to target and monitor.”
