Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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'Facial recognition' error message on vending machine sparks concern at University of Waterloo (kitchener.ctvnews.ca)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

151 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A set of smart vending machines at the University of Waterloo is expected to be removed from campus after students raised privacy concerns about their software.

The machines have M&M artwork on them and sell chocolate and other candy. They are located throughout campus, including in the Modern Languages building and Hagey Hall.

Earlier this month, a student noticed an error message on one of the machines in the Modern Languages building. It appeared to indicate there was a problem with a facial recognition application.

"We wouldn't have known if it weren't for the application error. There's no warning here," said River Stanley, a fourth-year student, who investigated the machines for an article in the university publication, mathNEWS.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (4 children)

When did it become ok for people to be violated so profusely without any consequence?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When society started paying for convenience?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

At the dawn of civilization? Lol

Prostitutes, the world's oldest profession, could be argued to be paying for convenience.

People also probably paid for cooked meals pretty early in civilization.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

No phones back then, changed the game :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

And you can bet your ass that prostitutes sold information about their clients, if offered any compnsation for it. :)

[–] namingthingsiseasy 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There was a quaint old time, shortly after Google was founded, where people mused about privacy over the internet. It was forgotten about as the profits started rolling in and pretty much all other companies started following along. That was the time when we started transitioning into a period of massive data surveillance. Glad to see that the conversation is starting to pick up again in some areas, though it's definitely being actively suppressed in many others.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

In the 18th century. That's when capitalism really got rolling and when Adam Smith wrote his crap.

Alternatively: 1493

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Laws and lawyers. You can't go there and beat them up. That pretty much paved the way. Money is just a toy to them. So there is zero risk involved.