Description: The University of Waterloo has asked for all 29 vending machines from Swiss company Invenda be removed from campus following word that the machines have a type of facial analysis capability. The matter came to light when one of the vending machines displayed an error message relating to “facial recognition,” prompting student responses on Reddit and in a campus journal. For its part, Invenda says that no data was being stored and that the primary use of the cameras was to move machines from a standby mode to a sales mode by detecting when a consumer was standing in front of one.

Date:  February 27, 2024

Source:  cbc.ca

 Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/vending-machine-facial-analysis-invenda-waterloo-1.7126196

Discussion points:

1) Are the vending machines on your campus watching you?

2) Would you be concerned if a vending machine like this was placed on your campus?

3) Page 6-5 of Wiley’s Understanding Financial Accounting lists five key limitations of internal control. Even when a company has controls in place to protect customers’ data, which of these limitations do you see might pose a problem and allow customer information to be compromised?