City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

bbc ^ | 12 August 2013 Last updated at 08:41 ET | Joe Miller

[BenLurkin]

The action follows concerns raised by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, after details of the technology used in the bins emerged in the online magazine Quartz.

Mr Memari told the BBC that the devices had only recorded "extremely limited, encrypted, aggregated and anonymised data" and that the current technology was just being used to monitor local footfall, in a similar way as a web page monitors traffic.

He added that more capabilities could be developed in the future, but that the public would be made aware of any changes

The bins, which are located in the Cheapside area of central London, log the media access control (MAC) address of individual smartphones - a unique identification code carried by all devices that can connect to a network.

A spokesman for the City of London Corporation said: "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."

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS:

[BenLurkin]

located in the Cheapside area

No kidding.

[null and void]

Ah well, the data is encrypted. No problem!

Wait. Who has the keys?

*nevermind*

[JRandomFreeper]

So you drop your empty coffee cup in the bin and the bin collects all your contact information, photos, apps, gps trace data, etc... from your phone.

Got it.

/johnny

[Ken522]

At least the Cheapside of London has a way for smartphone users to get binned!

[familyop]

"...encrypted...and anonymised data'"

What should be done with all Internet traffic. The following is the proper way to win against "terrorism" (guerilla warfare waged against us by foreign enemies). Our old men of the past had more sense than we do.

Denazification, cumulative review. Report, 1 April 1947-30 April 1948.
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Denazi