Big Brother in your big yellow bin?
By TIM PRUDENTE, Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:00 amAbout 50,000 radio tracking devices have been distributed to homes in Anne Arundel County.
Most residents don’t know.
And Candy Morrison is trying to change that.
The Pasadena woman is working to inform neighbors that their new 65-gallon recycling bins come with radio-frequency identification chips, which can be activated to transmit data to a computer tracking system.
County trucks came to Morrison’s Bay Street home about three weeks ago to deliver bright yellow bins. When they arrived, she stood on the curb and told the workers to take hers away.
She doesn’t want one.
Not after she learned the chips, known as RFIDs, can be used to transmit information about recyclables from each address.
“Under what conceivable reason would I want anyone looking at my trash that closely?” she asked. “I don’t like the idea of our government monitoring us like this. You can’t have freedom without privacy.”
The small chips were imbedded in every bin, which are larger than the old model and come on wheels. But the chips have not been activated, said Matt Diehl, spokesman for the county Department of Public Works.
The chips could be used, in the future, to determine how many pounds of recyclables are coming from specific homes. That information would help officials reach residents who choose not to participate in the recycling program, Diehl said.
To activate the chips, the county must purchase a computer system to collect and store the data. Also “readers” must be installed on collection trucks to identify the cans.
Diehl said the county has no plans at this time to activate the chips.
“Right now, they’re useless,” he said. “It’s just another part of the container, no more invasive than the handle or the wheel.”
Morrison, though, isn’t satisfied.
She’s organizing with neighbors to inform the public that their recyclables could be watched. She’s taken particular issue with the fact that county residents were not told of the chips.
“If this is really such a good idea, why weren’t we told?” she asked.
Diehl said he is unsure why residents weren’t told.
He said the county has no plans at this time to activate the chips, but that residents would have the opportunity to opt out if the chips are activated.
The county has distributed about 50,000 bins so far and officials plan to deliver another 25,000 by June of next year. The county purchased the bins about two years ago. Each cost $42.50 and the RFID chip could be included for an additional cost of $1. They also come with bar code labels so the county can keep track of where it has delivered the bins as it rolls them out across the county.
At that price, Diehl said, it made sense to buy the chips.
“This way we already have the chips in place,” he said. “We won’t have to retrofit the bins.”
Similar programs have been launched throughout the state. Thousands of chips were included in recycling cans in Howard and Frederick counties. Officials with those counties reassured residents by saying the chips would only be used if bins were lost or stolen.
Elsewhere, though, chips have caused public outcry.
Opposition was vocal when the City of Cleveland launched a program about two years ago. And residents protested in Gastonia, N.C., convincing officials there to cancel the tracking effort.
“People should be notified if the county is going to put chips in the bins,” said Meredith Curtis, spokeswoman for the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s about transparency. People need to know what’s being done with their information.”