“Only because of that official investigation did Canadians learn that ‘over 5 million nonconsenting Canadians’ were scanned into Cadillac Fairview's database”. Wow.
This Wired article is contradictory. The spokesperson says:
“an individual person cannot be identified using the technology in the machines. The technology acts as a motion sensor that detects faces, so the machine knows when to activate the purchasing interface”
I suppose it’s possible that a sloppy developer would name an executable Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe which merely senses the presence of a face. But it seems like a baldfaced lie when you consider that:
“Invenda sales brochures that promised ‘the machines are capable of sending estimated ages and genders’ of every person who used the machines—without ever requesting consent.”
Boycott Mars
I already boycott Mars because they are a GMA member and they spent ~$500k lobbying against #GMO labeling -- and they have been blackballed for using child slave labor -- and Mars supports Russia. This is another good reason to #boycottMars.
Update
Apparently a LemmyBug replaced the article URL with a picture URL. The article is here:
https://www.wired.com/story/facial-recognition-vending-machine-error-investigation/
The vending machine pic is here:
https://infosec.pub/pictrs/image/2041d717-7cd7-4393-94f3-96aa87817aa7.jpeg
Is this gross, and do they need stopping? Of course.
Is boycotting mars going to make even the slightest difference? Not in a million years.
Not only does mars probably own more companies than you even realise, including many of the alternatives you're buying thinking you're avoiding them, but even the products you do buy that are coming from a different company altogether, suffer from the exact same background problems (exploitation, oppression, unsustainability, lobbying).
There is good reason for the saying "no ethical consumption under capitalism", and the answer isn't making bare minimum and counterproductive gestures like trying to find some ethical unicorn of a company, it's to abolish capitalism because it requires and encourages all of the unethical practices you're looking to avoid, in order to exist.
While what your saying is fundamentally true, it is worth noting that companies do notice declines in sales even very slight ones, and while there isn't ethical consumption there is certainly still a wide range of how unethical companies are. Just cause none are great doesn't mean they are all equally bad.
It is also worth noting that mass voting with dollars is one of the most effective peaceful tools currently available in a capitalist system to drive change (for non essential/non monopolized goods). Things like fair trade chocolate and sustainable packaging types exist because consumer demand for them is real, and if enough consumers demand and change spending habits for fair wage practices and bare minimum corporate ethics standards it will start to happen too.
Obviously this is all easier with more coordination among the consumers but even without it, we see companies change their practices due to consumer backlash that hits sales now. This is more effective than you may be giving it credit for, even if not as much as we would like
You go ahead and keep playing within the rules that capitalism has set for you, rather than realise that it is designed to withstand all your futile little attempts and is only getting worse, see how well that works out for you..
Look guy I want to tear the thing down as much as you, but until that gets started this is what I got. In order to be successful in either will require some better commraderie than the tone you seem to have here