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City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

bbc.co.uk

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Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#11

Post by Tichy »

DanBC wrote: post #10
Tichy wrote: post #8

Am I the only one who finds that a bit silly? Perhaps the next step will be that we won't be allowed to look at other people on the street anymore, because we would gather too much information. What if I want to open a shop and count the pedestrians walking by at a potential location, will police swoop in to throw me in jail? I wouldn't be surprised if every smartphone with WLAN also "tracks" other people on the stre…

> And what about the mobile networks, they already track the location of every one of us? Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people. They specify what data they are collecting, and why, and they are subject to regulations about what they can do with the data and how long they can keep the data. > What if I want to open a shop and count the pedestrians walking by at a potential location, will poli…

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people."

And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#12

Post by adw »

Tichy wrote: post #11
DanBC wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And what about the mobile networks, they already track the location of every one of us? Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people. They specify what data they are collecting, and why, and they are subject to regulations about what they can do with the data and how long they can keep the data. > What if I want to open a shop and count the pedestrians walking by at a potential location, will poli…

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people." And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

Every business of any size has to do it. Costs about $100. It's not hard.

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#13

Post by will118 »

I keep seeing these Renew people dance around this whole "identifying information" thing.

Maybe they clarified it somewhere along the line, but I read the quartz article and the one before.

I can't think of anything more identifying that I carry than my MAC address(es). So say my MAC is 01:23:45:67:89:ab and Renew anonymizes this to "0001", clearly that's just as identifiable.

I genuinely can't think of a reason to gather MAC addresses other than to use them for profiling.

The human footfall/bean counter thing is great [1], but not worth any money to anyone. Seems more like a PoC...

I don't know a lot about AI recognition but I'd have thought you could have a camera counting people fairly easily.

I actually don't personally mind, I think it's fair game unless the government says it isn't - and then I can go back to just the worry of blackhats.

So unless I'm very mistaken this Reveal/Orb company are either building profiles, plan to, or have a business plan [1] that is going nowhere big.

[1] http://www.littlesheep-learning.co.uk/images/Tally_Counter.j...

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#14

Post by eterm »

Tichy wrote: post #11
DanBC wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And what about the mobile networks, they already track the location of every one of us? Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people. They specify what data they are collecting, and why, and they are subject to regulations about what they can do with the data and how long they can keep the data. > What if I want to open a shop and count the pedestrians walking by at a potential location, will poli…

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people." And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

What's the Data Protection Agency?

Data protection is a law, it applies to anyone. There's no such thing as the data protection agency, just the information commissioner.

There's no money and no lawyers fees, do you care to explain yourself?

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#15

Post by Tichy »

eterm wrote: post #14
Tichy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people." And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

What's the Data Protection Agency? Data protection is a law, it applies to anyone. There's no such thing as the data protection agency, just the information commissioner. There's no money and no lawyers fees, do you care to explain yourself?

I was replying to DanBC who mentioned the Data Protection People. I have no idea how this stuff works in Britain.

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#16

Post by Tichy »

adw wrote: post #12
Tichy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people." And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

Every business of any size has to do it. Costs about $100. It's not hard.

So for 100$ the recycling bins could be back on the street, if they credibly anonymize the data?

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#17

Post by moocowduckquack »

eterm wrote: post #14
Tichy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Those companies are registered with the Data Protection people." And it's probably really easy for "the little man" to register with the Data Protection Agency? Or do you need lots of lawyers and lots of money?

What's the Data Protection Agency? Data protection is a law, it applies to anyone. There's no such thing as the data protection agency, just the information commissioner. There's no money and no lawyers fees, do you care to explain yourself?

Is the Information Commissioners Office, which used to be the Data Protection Registrar, which deals with the Register of Data Controllers. Registration requires a fee which funds the Information Commissioners Office, however this fee is only £35, or £500 if you have a turnover of more than £25 million.

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#18

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

jwilliams wrote: post #4
casca wrote: post #3

For those unaware, this is not "London" that's stopping the tracking bins, it's the City of London. This is the historical center and current financial district. It is ~1 square mile out of ~600 for the. There are all sorts of curiosities around the City - it is not governed like the other boroughs and is extremely wealthy in its own right. Conspiracy theorists have found much fodder in the City government and contro…

Indeed, the same City of London that is surrounded by the "Ring of Steel"[1] - described as a "surveillance cordon" with almost half a million CCTV cameras. At the checkpoints police had near-carte-blanche to search any vehicle they liked. From a different era, granted, but a strange entity to be kicking up a fuss about privacy. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_steel_(London)

Wealthy people like to protect their personal privacy.

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#19

Post by adw »

Tichy wrote: post #16
adw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every business of any size has to do it. Costs about $100. It's not hard.

So for 100$ the recycling bins could be back on the street, if they credibly anonymize the data?

Well, what they were doing was probably never illegal. That doesn't mean the City of London are obliged to let them do it – they're their bins.

Re: City of London calls halt to smartphone tracking bins

#20

Post by tehwalrus »

1) Good.

2) who the hell wrote this article?

"The UK and the EU have strict laws about mining personal data using cookies, which involves effectively installing a small monitoring device on people's phones or computers, but the process of tracking MAC codes leaves no trace on individuals' handsets."

I'm sorry, what now? a small data file is not a "device." (answer: Joe Miller, apparently.)

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