![Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mm-camera-spy-800x450.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1)
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Mars | Getty Images)
Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting facial-recognition data without their consent.
The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, “Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe,” displayed after the machine failed to launch a facial recognition application that nobody expected to be part of the process of using a vending machine.
![Reddit post shows error message displayed on a University of Waterloo vending machine (cropped and lightly edited for clarity).](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/mm-vending-machine-facial-recognition-cropped-640x360.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1)
Reddit post shows error message displayed on a University of Waterloo vending machine (cropped and lightly edited for clarity). (credit: SquidKid47 on Reddit)
“Hey, so why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?” SquidKid47 pondered.
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