With the campus cafe shut down during COVID, Mercer has installed vending machines called “Canteen Micro Markets” from a company named Avenue C. The machines offer more than the traditional chips and soda, including items like sandwiches and yogurt bowls
But some students have run into problems with the machines’ difficult to navigate interface, and have lost money to its account crediting system.
Student Ashley Jackson, (who is also an editor at the VOICE) says, “After creating an account I was prompted to add $10 to the balance, but I was still charged for the full amount of my order on top of it. What’s the point of the balance if I can’t use it?”
Jackson says at the beginning of the semester she was standing in line at one of the Micro Market machines in the Student Center and the person in front of her was struggling to check out.
“We were trying to do ‘guest’ checkout but we couldn’t get to the cart without making an account, and to make an account, you have to put money on the account first. The account has to be tied to your fingerprint, or a scannable ID. The screen recommended Drivers Licence, but I used the bar code on my student ID.” She adds, “The person in front of me also lost $10 and the girl in front of him became so flustered they both gave up and left without getting food.”
The problems seem to be intermittent as other students tested the machines and they were working properly.
However, some students are still concerned about the machine prompting users to create accounts by giving personal information such as fingerprint scans or driver’s license numbers, which may present security threats by using sensitive, biometric data.
Morey Haber, Chief Security officer at BeyondTrust, a company that specializes in addressing cyber security threats, describes how personally identifiable information (PII) such as fingerprint, voice, and retina scans, can be good for some things like locking your phone, but may also “pose unique data privacy risks and ramifications on multiple levels…Once your biometric data has been leaked or compromised, it puts you at continual risk for identity-based attacks.”
Haber says, on the BeyondTrust blog, that it is important to know how your data is being stored and secured and who has access to it.
Canteen, the owner of the Avenue C Micro Markets, could not be reached for comment, but according to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy on their website, information collected “about you offline, [or] from third parties” may be used for a broad range of purposes including “To share the personal information with service providers to carry out other business purposes.” It is not clear whether this refers to biometric data collected from vending machines.
Neither the site nor the machines provide readily accessible information about how biometric data is stored or secured.
Asked about the safety of students giving out their biometric data, Bryon Marshall, Director of College Safety, Security and Facilities, says, “I’m not offended by any of that. I see it as commerce and a bit of integrity. I think it’s a challenge more than a problem.”
Marshall says biometrics are becoming a common security tool used in different industries and that usage will increase in future technology. Though there have been no formal complaints about the campus vending machines submitted so far, Marshall says he does understand students’ hesitation.
“I see it as maybe a challenge for some who are concerned about identity theft and things of that nature,” Marshall says.
Steven Quattro, Director of Purchasing, the division of the college that handles vendor agreements, says, “Canteen, a Division of Compass Group USA, Inc., was awarded the contract to provide both vending machines and food services to the College, as a result of a publicly advertised request for proposal advertised in March of 2020 with the contract being approved by the MCCC Board of Trustees.”
Quattro says the only issue he is aware of with the Mini Market machines at the college is, “…not stocking enough milk for breakfast. In response, Canteen has increased the amount of both dairy and non-dairy (almond) milk in the Avenue C Market vending machines.”
