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submitted 4 months ago by Ninjazzon@infosec.pub to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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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[-] kbal@fedia.io 59 points 4 months ago

Yet another demonstration that the primary meaning of "smart" has come to be "unbelievably stupid."

[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 26 points 4 months ago

The definition of pretty much every word these days has been hijacked to mean the exact opposite - like Google lets you "search" for things you "want", and Reddit would "connect" you to "~~humans~~ people", FaceBook will ~~steal all of your data~~ share "news", again from "people", and so on.

I pretty much think of "smart" as now meaning "tactically weaponized to maximize corpo profits" - you know, "for your convenience"!:-P 🤮

[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago
[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 months ago
[-] Rolando@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Renting is owning.

Downloading is theft.

[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 2 points 4 months ago

I should probably read that - I figured that I get the gist having read Animal Farm but hey, if we are going to live out the irl version then it might be good to at least say that I read about it first!:-P

It is fascinating how some people see far (ahead), by virtue of seeing clear (to the soul/center of the human condition) - technology may change but we don't seem to. Asimov, Jules Verne, George Orwell, they are like techno- or cultural prophets, not that we listened, sadly:-(.

C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) in addition to being a christian apologist also wrote philosophy about how Hitler was able to influence Europe during WWII, and I found that just fascinating e.g. if you avoid ever saying a thing but instead just act as if it is true then it is a way to avoid it being questioned. Evil people have access to so many tricks that a free & just society would never condone using (another big one lately is misinformation), nor would it even so much work in the other direction b/c getting people to question things is a major bonus in such a society so it's at best an anti-pattern there, and yet I wish we were much more aware of them b/c otherwise it is like facing a pathogen with no immune system.

Anyway thank you for reminding me of those quotes:-).

this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
820 points (99.5% liked)

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