“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.
Claiming boycotts don’t work is as good as claiming voting doesn’t work. It works in numbers.
Have a look at this infographic:
I have been boycotting everything in that graphic except “Associated British Foods plc” for the past 15 years because I pay attention and I have collected copious dirt on those companies. They are rotten to the core. I could probably find dirt on ABF if I searched for it specifically, but they are likely the lesser of evils and patronizing the lesser of evils is what ethical consumers do.
This is the classic “they’re all evil” excuse for not doing your duty as an ethical consumer in favor of putting price and value above ethics in the interest of № 1. Corpations are not equals in the slightest. If you do a bit of research, you find that the smaller companies are much less frequently involved in wrongdoing. I keep a list of the scandals of these companies and it’s clear which ones do the lion’s share of harm.
From that article:
“It is now 2018. People have “gone green”, eaten vegan, shopped “fair-trade”, and recycled for years now. Yet the atrocities that spurned the ethical consumption movement continue unabated. ”
Yikes. That author does not know what was abated because he only looks around at what he sees now. So because there are still problems, Olive Pape concludes “boycotting doesn’t work”, instead of realizing that boycotting works in numbers.
I boycott the worst of the worst with no expectation that my drop in the ocean makes a significant difference (just like my drop in the ocean vote makes no significant difference in an election). I do it to ensure that I am not part of the problem.
Stop being a part of the problem and favor the lesser of evils in the marketplace instead of taking the best deal that benefits you personally.
That kind of unhinged stance may be accurate, but we don’t live in an abolished capitalism world. Abolition of capitalism is a separate action entirely that’s not mutually exclusive to ethical consumption. You can dream about anarchy all you want but those dreams are actually not “going to make even the slightest difference… Not in a million years.” So in the meantime, please consume ethically.
Lmao, voting doesn't work. If it did, they wouldn't let you do it.
It's pretty clear from your entire reply that you are far too invested in the status quo to ever imagine life outside of it. I can't help you with that, and I'm not going to waste my Sunday trying.
Good luck with your boycotts lol.
And yet instead of getting Trump again in 2020, voters chose differently. It was reallllly hard to find that example though, since it was 200 years ago and simply never happens /s
I really appreciate this response. The person you responded to is a mental sloth. "They're all bad" is absolutely the mentally laziest shit there is
I mean great fuckin point. Perfect and better need to have a cage match because they're dyed in the wool enemies