As someone living and working in London, I pass more than a couple of these 'bins' every single day.
These bins are quite strategically placed (1) in the heart of the square mile - the prime financial district and tourist hub of London city (2) especially around bus stops and city squares in this area - which have some form or other of free city wide wifi networks - where one would be waiting for enough time (consuming lunch, waiting for bus, meeting a friend, shopping...) to be an ideal consumer for targeted advertisement.
They also have an extremely amusing design which makes them look slick - but extremely unlike waste bins - infact you have to look at them closely to find where you need to dispose off your waste. This was one thing that amused me extremely when I first saw them - the strange inconspicuous design - but things make much more sense in the light of this article.
As someone who's targeted more than once a day by these things, I see this as a breach of privacy and expect to be informed that data about me is being collected and stored and maybe used for commercial purposes in the future (irrespective of the ICO technicalities and loop holes).
As a human, its a fundamental breach of trust and I would personally not see these things with the same inconspicuousness they have been designed with to deceptively integrate and blend into our daily environment.
These bins are quite strategically placed (1) in the heart of the square mile - the prime financial district and tourist hub of London city (2) especially around bus stops and city squares in this area - which have some form or other of free city wide wifi networks - where one would be waiting for enough time (consuming lunch, waiting for bus, meeting a friend, shopping...) to be an ideal consumer for targeted advertisement.
They also have an extremely amusing design which makes them look slick - but extremely unlike waste bins - infact you have to look at them closely to find where you need to dispose off your waste. This was one thing that amused me extremely when I first saw them - the strange inconspicuous design - but things make much more sense in the light of this article.
As someone who's targeted more than once a day by these things, I see this as a breach of privacy and expect to be informed that data about me is being collected and stored and maybe used for commercial purposes in the future (irrespective of the ICO technicalities and loop holes).
As a human, its a fundamental breach of trust and I would personally not see these things with the same inconspicuousness they have been designed with to deceptively integrate and blend into our daily environment.