Gas stations and other tobacco outlets in the Netherlands use face scanners to check the age of customers. There are about a hundred of these NIX18 vending machines in use. The AD recently reported on this.
The sales device uses a camera to scan the face and uses artificial intelligence to determine whether the customer is 25 years old or older. To do so, a customer must first give permission. To determine age, the system looks at the skin and wrinkles on the facial scan, among other things. If the outcome is that the customer is younger then they must have their ID, passport or driver's license scanned by the vending machine.
"The data that are observed are immediately deleted from the scanner's memory, making it impossible to establish any relationship between the transaction and the scan," the system's manufacturer told the AD. According to the daily, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens has informed the manufacturer in an opinion that the deployment of the system is unlawful. However, the manufacturer of the NIX18 vending machine counter-argues that no one is obliged to have the face scan performed.
