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posted by takyon on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the trashy-surveillance-tactics dept.

The Intercept has a recent article: Local Governments Increasingly Poking Through Your Garbage:

Civil libertarians are worried about an increasingly common form of domestic surveillance that...has to do with looking through your garbage... [G]arbage trucks now have the ability to record the contents of your trash cans on video to inspect each object. The ACLU says, "While encouraging residents to recycle is commendable, any program involving the government's systematic monitoring of citizens crosses a line. The contents of your trash can be surprisingly revealing." [emphasis mine] In some cities, trash cans are monitored with RFID devices to determine who is actually putting their recycling bin out on the curb. Prizes are given, or fines can be levied if a threshold limiting recyclable content in trash is exceeded, although none have been issued yet. "It's very crazy. Also not entirely surprising given the prevalence of surveillance technologies. Nothing is safe, not even our trash."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:06PM (#216022)

    Most of our trash comes from grocery packaging (and we minimize that by buying mostly produce). We often take this trash back to them -- there is always a garbage can by the store entrance. Sort of the reverse of wilderness camping protocol...

    Anything remotely trace-able (bank correspondence, etc) gets shredded.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Tork on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:20PM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:20PM (#216027)

    Where do you store that trash until the next trip to the grocery store?

    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:37PM (#216031)

      In my rectum. I make Goatse's asshole look like a pinhole.

      • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Tork on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:55PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:55PM (#216039)

        Ah, you need attention. Got it. Why not say something insightful?

        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:57PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:57PM (#216041)

          Because making you butthurt is too fun.

          • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Tork on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:03PM

            by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:03PM (#216043)

            Good luck!

            --
            🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:17PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:17PM (#216048)

              Don't need luck. I already won.

              • (Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:30PM

                by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:30PM (#216074)

                Whatever you say, man. ;)

                --
                🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:01PM (#216042)

      Where do you store that trash ...

      We go to the grocery store 2-3 times a week for fresh produce (often by bicycle). It takes us 3-5 days to fill a US standard sized plastic grocery bag/sack with trash (only two people, no kids) so there isn't any storage problem with a covered kitchen wastebasket. We don't use an outside trash can like most of our suburban neighbors, avoids some odors in hot weather.

      The town has curbside pickup for recyclables which is a much larger volume (mostly the daily newspaper, we still like to read on paper). Town also takes trash, we put out a single bag if one happens to be full that day.

    • (Score: 2) by Tork on Friday July 31 2015, @02:34AM

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 31 2015, @02:34AM (#216124)

      Where do you store that trash until the next trip to the grocery store?

      I understand my other remarks getting modded down, but why this one? It was a serious question and I got an insightful response.

      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 31 2015, @01:12PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday July 31 2015, @01:12PM (#216291) Journal

      I imagine a person can bale packaging. A spool of twine and you're set. When I was a kid growing up in the Rockies people used to bale newspaper, cereal boxes, and such to throw into their fireplaces like logs.

      Paper waste we solved by shredding it, using it as guinea pig bedding, and then throwing into the compost bin to turn into next spring's garden soil. Food scraps we can put in a special recycling bin here in Brooklyn, but we do that ourselves for our own garden. Metal and plastics we recycle. Packaging is the last thing we have in our regular trash can, and I wish I could dump it back on the grocery stores.

      I have been toying with the idea of making a small-scale backyard foundry to melt down the metal waste stream and use it for projects; last time a similar topic came up on SN somebody gave me a link to a good project [youtube.com]. (haven't got to it yet because next in the queue is converting an old DirecTV satellite dish into a parabolic mirror w/ stirling engine.)

      I dream of being able to throw all the packaging and plastics into a hopper that grinds it up and re-processes it into feedstock for a 3D printer. I would never buy anything again, just throw it into the hopper when it breaks or I'm tired of it and manufacture something else.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @04:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @04:09AM (#216158)

    I shred docs too, but depending upon your adversary, it isn't enough:
    http://archive.darpa.mil/shredderchallenge/ [darpa.mil]

    Apparently low-bar for your adversary too:
    http://www.unshredder.com/the-challenge/w1/i1001783/ [unshredder.com]