Big Brother Hiding in British Trash Bins

I'm not sure what to think of this, is it an intrusion of privacy, are you British sneaking out trash your not supposed too
Is big Brother looking for liquid bottles

Germans plant bugs in our wheelie bins

Snip~~
Already some 500,000 bins in council districts across England have been fitted with the bugs - with nearly all areas expected to follow suit within the next couple of years.
The official reason for the bugs is to 'improve efficiency' and settle disputes between neighbours over wheelie-bin ownership. But experts say the technology is actually intended to enable councils to impose fines on householders who exceed limits on the amount of non-recyclable waste they put out. New powers for councils to do this are expected to be introduced by the Government shortly.

But the revelation that the bins have already been altered ignited a 'Bin Brother' row over privacy and taxes. Conservative MP Andrew Pelling said burglars could hack into the computer system to see if sudden reductions in waste at individual households meant the owners were on holiday and the property empty.
He said: 'This is nothing more than a spy in the bin and I don't think even the old Soviet Union made such an intrusion into people's personal lives.
'It is Big Brother gone mad. I think a more British way of doing things is to seek to persuade people rather than spy on them.'

It looks just like any other wheelie bin, but unknown to the householder a bugging device has been inserted under the lip of its lid (bottom left). The bug itself is only a little bigger than a 1p piece (bottom right)

Sounds like a waste of money to me. I mean how much sensitive information can you really get by putting a bug in a rubbish bin? Wouldn't it make more sense to put bugs Inside peoples houses?

I don't even think George Orwell himself could have come up with that crap, jeeezus. Bugs in your trash, that's absolutely amazing man. They just passed some Storm Tax crap here that literally taxes the rain that hits your roof, they claim it's because urban areas cost more for drainage... Can you imagine telling one of our founding fathers like Jefferson that you were going to tax the rain on his roof or put a bug in his trash can? He'd put a musket ball in your skull. What's next, toliet bugs to check your consistency or flow rate?
How much further do we let this kind of crap go?

This is far, far more important than alot of people realise. here is the first step towards forcing an acceptance to digital surveillance and monitoring.

Think of it this way - They can measure the quantity and weight of your rubbish, they can charge you by how much you produce.... BUT, and theres a big BUT here.

Revenue raising. You will be fined if you do not recycle. How can they find this out? well of course your recycle bins had better weigh more than non recycle bins or there will be trouble. There is going to be an enforcment section to police this - along with fines of £ 75 if you put bin bags out on the wrong day and they sit there - yes you read that right, £75 fines. Its for the good of the community you see - AND local authorities will keep the money...

ITS ANOTHER TAX!!! thats all it is - scaring you into acceptance of big authority over you...

OK I have had enough. Im starting a revolution - I want this country to get off this madness ride, and get back to terra firma.

Who owns the bins?

If they are the property of the homeowner, then this is a breach of privacy.

If they are the property of the city/government, then they have every right to bug them.

If people don't like that, they are free to enlist the services of a private waste disposal company (I assume Britain has those...).

Seems pretty benign to me. Just like limiting how many trash sacks people can put on their curb.

Finding suitable land for a garbage dump is a problem these days. All the pandering in the world wont get people to reduce their waste output.

The bins are owned by the council.

I cant see how the RFID chips are invading privacy, the only thing they check is the weight of rubbish produced .

My wheelie bins at my previous house had something similar, it was a smaller chip under a small sticker, with a barcode on. It was so they could link the bin to the house, just to monitor weight of them. It communicated with a chip on the bin lorry. It followed a spait of people over filling bins, putting contaminated waste into recycling bins etc. The binmen would refuse to collect if they were too heavy or contaminated. Before the chips the binmen could refuse to collect a bin even if it wasn't over weight, but now they have to weigh each one on the lorry, and only allowed to refuse if it is definatly over weight.

The whole reason they plan to implement this is so they can charge you for how much non-recyclable rubbish you put out. They expect this will help increase recycling when in reality its going to make things worse. People are simply not going to pay those fines and if the only way to get around it is to dump the rubbish in a street/alleyway/river then people will do exactly that.

[edit on 28-8-2006 by Edn]

This seems to me like this is the governments way of watching what we do, but using a excuess that its about the owenership of the bin, im personally going to look through my bin and remove anything similar to that.

Krax:

It will be immediately obvious when the trash man hoists the can and the little interrogator goes "beep! No serial number!"

Then you'll get a visit from the Department of Silly Walks with a ticket for you to pay.

You're all looking at this wrong.

You should be looking at it as a money making opportunity.

Clone the ID of a neighbor you don't care for. Let them pay for your trash. The nature of these systems is that no-one really double checks; if the system says that's trashcan 113124, then it is!

I PAY to have my trash removed. It will continue going out in green trash bags!

No bugs for me.

I wonder if they will be doing the same on the raw sewage to make sure nobody is dumping any Incriminating liquids on the toilets and sinks.

I imagine that if they are willing to bug trash cans they will probably bug your toilet too.

My boss at the garbage company I worked for said that he used to put GPS into the trucks because the drivers kept driving to parking lots and going to sleep. Also he used to put a tag on the bin that was picked up by the truck to prevent people calling in and saying their trash wasnt picked up so they could get an extra dump.

This plan however is absolutely rediculous. What if rain water gets inside? Now it weighs significantly more. What if you are out of town for a couple of weeks and now are considered a polluter because you didnt recylce, and have to pay a fine for it?

It would seem more likely that the scanner on the trash can picks up RFID off of product packaging which is thrown away. This information would be used to see how many people, and where, buy certain products. This type of info is really important to companys and it would make sense to want to collect it this way.

Ive just seen this story on Richard and Judy. It must really be important if tey have those two hard-line investigative journalists on the case!

I dont really care if they put a bug in my bin if it encourages people to recycle more. Thats what this thread should be about, not terrifying people of this nonexistant big brother. I mean what personal information are they going to gain from the inside of my bin? Id care if it was a camera or something but its not.

I removed mine today. After boiling it for 30 minutes, then microwaving it for 10, then letting it sit between a couple of magnets, I took a scan of it before I send it off with an angry letter to the council.




These are what these evil things look like. If you find it, rub magnets on it, boil it, and microwave it in a microwave safe dish filled with water to wipe it.

Beware the NWO!

[edit on 30-8-2006 by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf]

Skadi_the_Evil_Elf, I think you have effectively answered the age old question we have always ourselves, "What can one person do?"
I'm curious as to what your letter said and how they respond to it!

Edit: Also I can give you a quick Writing a Press Release 101 if you're interested!

[edit on 30-8-2006 by twitchy]

I will copy and paste my letter here, with of course, certain words censored, as I used a bit of strong language.

My Letter:

Dear Sirs,

It has come to my attention that certain elements of the Council of Bournemouth has been engaging in a rather cloak and dagger violation of our privacy and human rights by implanting RDIF chips in our bins. Last time I looked, the United Kingdom was a democracy and a free country, not a socialist dictatorship.

The enclosed chip was found underneath my bin. I am willing to accept that some dark, evil, anti democratic organization, and certainly the good council of Bournemouth would not be involved in such police state tactics would never even think of such a thing. Thus, I hope the enclosed chip, which I find a spurious violation of democratic decency finds you well, and upon receipt I am sure the good people of the council will dispose of it and be certain that future violations of our human rights do not occur.

If, however, the council of Bournemouth is indeed involved in this nefarious spying on my rubbish, then you are officially a bunch of *snip* *snip* and should be deported to some *snip* Middle eastern dictatorship where you can play Gestapo all you want and no one will give a *snip*.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Citizen in Bournemouth

When will you Brits learn that you guys seem to @#%! your selves at every chance you get.. why do you guys allow the government there to spy on you in such outragious ways???

Why do you guys even have trash bins in the first place.. at least where I live you just throw out the bags, garbage dude picks it up and there is no need for a bin... especially if it has eyes and watches you!

Originally posted by Rockpuck
When will you Brits learn that you guys seem to @#%! your selves at every chance you get.. why do you guys allow the government there to spy on you in such outragious ways???

Why do you guys even have trash bins in the first place.. at least where I live you just throw out the bags, garbage dude picks it up and there is no need for a bin... especially if it has eyes and watches you!

Whats the big deal? Its a bug in the non-recyclable bin that allows the garbage van to weigh how much non-recyclable waste u have, and charging u accordingly. A good idea if u ask me.

I totally agree with recycling. I try and recycle as much as I can. But to be charged extra for the other rubbish now that's a diferent story. We already pay enough counci tax to have it removed. Also knowing what some people are like you would have to put your rubbish out at the last minute to prevent other "overwasters" from putting their rubbish in your bin. And what about the millions who are on benefit and don't pay the council tax, of course they won't have to pay for their extra rubbish either. But then, maybe I can dump my rubbish on their doorstep. Ha,ha. excellent idea. You will have people sneaking about with bags of rubbish in the middle of the night.