> Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll said a malfunction caused the camera to take photos. The machine, provided by the vending supplier Canteen, features a touch screen and uses a camera for people to purchase coffee with a card, she said. But Carroll added that Amazon offers the coffee to employees free of charge and has no practical use for the camera.
Why is a camera involved in purchasing coffee with a card? Genuine question. Was there an issue of people stealing coffee cards, so they used facial-ID matching? If so that seems like an expensive and authoritarian solution to a minor problem, and it doesn't make sense that the machine would do this if Amazon isn't using the cards. And it doesn't fully explain this:
> An employee at the DMP1 Amazon Delivery Station was getting coffee on February 9 when he saw a button on the coffee vending machine’s touch screen that read “gallery.”....The employee pushed the button and came across around half a dozen random photos of the breakroom, according to Canaday.
If the photos were close-ups of employees making coffee then I would buy the explanation that this was a feature Amazon forgot to disable. But if they are truly "random photos of the breakroom" then this explanation doesn't make sense to me.
Why is a camera involved in purchasing coffee with a card? Genuine question. Was there an issue of people stealing coffee cards, so they used facial-ID matching? If so that seems like an expensive and authoritarian solution to a minor problem, and it doesn't make sense that the machine would do this if Amazon isn't using the cards. And it doesn't fully explain this:
> An employee at the DMP1 Amazon Delivery Station was getting coffee on February 9 when he saw a button on the coffee vending machine’s touch screen that read “gallery.”....The employee pushed the button and came across around half a dozen random photos of the breakroom, according to Canaday.
If the photos were close-ups of employees making coffee then I would buy the explanation that this was a feature Amazon forgot to disable. But if they are truly "random photos of the breakroom" then this explanation doesn't make sense to me.