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I know the HN guidelines say not to comment that someone hasn't read the article, but the comments section can be a little useless when literally all of the top
by hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
I know the HN guidelines say not to comment that someone hasn't read the article, but the comments section can be a little useless when literally all of the top comments I see are from posters who appear not to have read the article.
In summary (and, in fairness, these technical details are pretty far down the article):
> The machines are owned by MARS and the manufacturer is Invenda.
> MARS did not respond to requests for comment from CTV.
> Invenda also did not respond to CTV’s requests for comment but told Stanley in an email “the demographic detection software integrated into the smart vending machine operates entirely locally.”
> “It does not engage in storage, communication, or transmission of any imagery or personally identifiable information,” it continued.
> According to Invenda’s website, the Smart Vending Machines can detect the presence of a person, their estimated age and gender. The website said the “software conducts local processing of digital image maps derived from the USB optical sensor in real-time, without storing such data on permanent memory mediums or transmitting it over the Internet to the Cloud.”
- moi2388 3y agoYes, the actual image data doesn’t get sent, but all the information gained from said image data does.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jjav 3y ago> The website said the “software conducts local processing of digital image maps derived from the USB optical sensor in real-time, without storing such data on permanent memory mediums or transmitting it over the Internet to the Cloud.” The most important thing to keep in mind about clauses like this is that at any time it's only one software update away from changing the behavior and suddenly starting to send everything. You'd never know. (And: That point in time may be in the past.)
- ourmandave 3y agoBy purchasing this candy bar, you agree to our updated Terms of Service.
- bombcar 3y agoPlease drink verification can.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago> “It does not engage in storage, communication, or transmission of any imagery or personally identifiable information,” Probably bullshit. Firstly, "personally identifiable information" is usually defined very specifically, like 'we didn't record their social security number'. Secondly, they send a bunch of information extracted from the image and they probably store the raw images on the machines which are then manually extracted at some point. Like photocopier that store a scan of everything put on the bed in its own hard-drive.
- Cheer2171 3y agoAn image of a face is literally personally identifiable information. A face is a unique identifier.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y agoThis should be an obvious truth. But people who install secret facial recognition in vending machines are also likely to be the type of people would exclude face images from their definition of PII.
- jsjohnst 3y ago> A face is a unique identifier. Guess you’ve never heard of twins?
- skydhash 3y ago> Guess you’ve never heard of twins? Guess you’ve never heard of names? Or date of birth? Personal doesn’t mean unique.
- mapreduce 3y ago>>> A face is a unique identifier. >> Guess you’ve never heard of twins? > Guess you’ve never heard of names? Or date of birth? Personal doesn’t mean unique. Your parent commenter is contesting the "A face is a unique identifier" part. They are not contesting "A face is personal". Of course face should be PII but at the same time it is not a unique identifier, so your parent commenter is correct and you are correct too. But you are replying to an objection that was never made.
- kibwen 3y agoWhat on Earth has ever given you the idea that companies should ever be trusted to tell the truth when money is involved?
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoWhat on Earth has ever given you the idea that I believe companies should be trusted in this regard? I just quoted the most relevant technical details of what is actually presented in the article given that so much of the initial commentary when I first saw this post were from people who clearly hadn't read the article.
- aendruk 3y agoThank you for the excerpt. I attempted to read the article but have a firmly negative reaction to the auto-playing video that CTV chose to pop over it.