![Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mm-camera-spy-800x450.jpg)
Enlarge (credit score: Aurich Lawson | Mars | Getty Photos)
Canada-based College of Waterloo is racing to take away M&M-branded good merchandising machines from campus after outraged college students found the machines have been covertly gathering facial-recognition knowledge with out their consent.
The scandal began when a pupil utilizing the alias SquidKid47 posted a picture on Reddit displaying a campus merchandising machine error message, “Invenda.Merchandising.FacialRecognitionApp.exe,” displayed after the machine did not launch a facial recognition utility that no one anticipated to be a part of the method of utilizing a merchandising machine.
![Reddit post shows error message displayed on a University of Waterloo vending machine (cropped and lightly edited for clarity).](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mm-vending-machine-facial-recognition-cropped-640x360.jpg)
Reddit publish reveals error message displayed on a College of Waterloo merchandising machine (cropped and evenly edited for readability). (credit score: SquidKid47 on Reddit)
“Hey, so why do the silly M&M machines have facial recognition?” SquidKid47 contemplated.
Learn 17 remaining paragraphs | Feedback