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A college is removing its vending machines after a student discovered they were using facial recognition technology
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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They claim to be GPDR compliant, and while I am not an EUian I think if that claim is accurate, they can't be doing any of those things you mention.
My point is, even if we take them at their word that the facial recognition is benign, it was still a dumb choice.
GPDR only applies in the EU, and this happened in Canada. They may actually be GPDR compliant in europe, but have they stated whether they are following those laws where they aren't legally required to?
Most companies who sell worldwide won't bother developing one set of firmware which is GPDR compliant for the EU, and another set for the rest of the world, unless there was an explicit business reason to do so. So when they replied about this incident in Canada with their GPDR status, I thought it was implied that they had only one codebase which was GPDR compliant, and they ship it in Canada, not because they have to but because it's all they have.
The assumption is exactly what they are hoping for and the problem. They say they adhere to the GPDR, but not that they adhere to it everywhere, regardless of legal requirement. If they do adhere to its requirements everywhere, it would be an easy thing to state.
The article has comments from the manufacturer and the company that stocks the machine and both state that they dont take or store pictures, but are purposely vague about what data they so take and storing. I expect this is due to it still being a creepy level of information about their customer base that is another revenue stream they exploit.