Recycling bins that can track you through your smartphone and other devices

[super jumbe]

Revealed in a report by Quartz, 12 recycling bins in London have been revealed to have the ability to track unsuspecting passers-by through their smartphones or other devices.

According to Renew, who tested the bins this summer, over a million unique devices were picked up just in the first month.

The bins pick up nearby smartphones or other devices MAC addresses, a unique identification number, but while this number is unique it does not reveal a person's name or address.

CEO of Renew, Kaveh Memari, told Quartz, "From our point of view, it's open to everybody, everyone can buy that data. London is the most heavily surveillanced city in the world... As long as we don't add a name and home address, it's legal."

These bins can be avoided as they will only track you if you have Wi-Fi turned on on your device(s), but Memari says around 80% of people in London leave Wi-Fi on when leaving their home/office.

http://www.t3.com/news/recycling-bins-that-can-track-you-through-your-smartphone-and-other-devices

[Meat-Head]

wicked, get it's mac address then

1) free internet to view DK
2) send it a free virus
3) drill a hole in the right place, that will sort it

[Johnner]

I think that program Person of Interest comes to mind when looking at stuff like this.


That's one technologically minded series,and you could pick up a few tips too.

[Meat-Head]

huh say that again in inglish please, slower, use caps locks if it helps

[ifred]

Johnner wine gum can't its an amerrycan tv series caps locks won't help him-(Person of Interest (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
If he's been watching too many amerrycan progs we'd have to melt his brain, or something first before proper inglish would come out

To be honest I'm surprised those bins aren't overflowing with discarded Ifones IMO best place for them