A reader wrote to ask if I knew about the City of Staunton installing Bigbelly trash cans on city sidewalks that appear to be connected to the cloud, and to ask if I could find out if the trash cans, which have a small rectangular forward-facing lens with a slowly blinking little red light in the top left front corner, ostensibly to wirelessly alert the city when the can is full, could be used for surveillance purposes.
Which, good question, since there was such a big issue made earlier in the year over the Flock surveillance cameras that the Staunton Police Department ultimately decided to get rid of.
It wouldn’t do much good to get rid of the Flock cameras, and then have the city surreptitiously using trash cans to keep tabs.
From the archives
- Coverage of the controversy over Flock cameras: click here.
What I learned: the city didn’t buy the deluxe models that can be connected to the cloud.
That model, the Bigbelly Smart Max, has sensors that monitor and report the fullness level, collection activity, bin status and GPS location.
The city purchased and installed the low-fi Bigbelly Sense Max, which is not connected to the cloud.
“The light is just a fullness indicator,” a city spokesman told me. “With the model we have, you have to physically be there looking at the trash bin to know whether you need to dump it.”
So, there you have it.
The new city trash cans aren’t being used to spy on us.
That’s the official word on the matter, at least.
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Chris Graham
