Beware, if you are walking about in the city of London, a bin may be watching you.
Never mind Big Brother, it’s the new smart bins you need to avoid if you don’t want to be tracked as you go about your business in the capital.
The Independent newspaper reported on the scheme this week that is being tried out in Cheapside, in the City. Bins in the street fitted with advanced tracking technology can pick up information from smartphones as people walk past.
This information can then be used to sell targeted advertising to companies, which could be displayed on screens on the bins.
The £30,000 bins have been designed and installed by a company called Renew. They can pick up on passing smartphones that have their WiFi switched on. The information can provide graphs showing what stores each individual visits, how long they spend in them and how often they visit them.
This means relevant adverts can be flashed up on the bins to the right people at the right time.
Renew CEO Kaveh Memari told The Independent: “The gist of it is that we are collecting anonymised, aggregated MAC details. We’re not really collecting a personal piece of data: we don’t know who anyone is.
“This is just testing to see if the technology works. It’s been used before in indoor environments but not outdoors before. In fact, it’s actively used in a lot places and people don’t even know it.”
However, there is already some concern over the collection of information in this way. The City of London Corporation has said: “We have already asked the firm concerned to stop this data collection immediately. We have also taken the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Irrespective of what’s technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public.”
Could Big Brother be coming to a bin near you in the future?