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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: 1) by patella.whack on Friday July 31 2015, @12:22AM

    by patella.whack (3848) on Friday July 31 2015, @12:22AM (#216084)
    OP here.
    While video analysis is rudimentary, and apparently confined to discerning whether or not you obey recycling regulations, it seems like much ado about nothing, now. But I can imagine a future where, once entrenched, automated garbage analysis becomes part of your profile. The tools will become more sophisticated. Chemical sniffing, etc..
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 31 2015, @12:39AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday July 31 2015, @12:39AM (#216091)

    I wouldn't be surprised if I was told that our provider weighs each of our 3 standard trash cans as they get lifted by the robotic arm. It makes sense from a "knowing when the truck is full" sense, and it may allow them to modulate prices down the road.