I’ve been following this story and it’s comments recently, and the tone of it really gets my goat.

I am a privacy advocate. I don’t buy the “if you’ve got nothing to hide then you’ve got nothing to worry about” argument, and the data protection act is one of the better laws we have.

In this case, some people seem to be mistaking this story for a privacy one. Mainly due to the tone that Yorkshire Evening Post are using. Others think this is an unwise way to spend taxes.

How are the council meant to know how well the recycling programmes area going, or how much money to put into waste management, unless they know what’s being thrown away?

This wasn’t “spying” on *people*, it was finding out how much they needed to focus on recycling efforts. They didn’t write down “mr so-and-so from number 58 threw away bananas…” they were working out percentages of whole neighbourhoods.

As a result of this, with less data to hand, the council will now have to guess how much to spend on refuse. And, through no fault of their own, will probably get it wrong, leaving taxpayers out of pocket and frustrated at the bin collections not being the right frequency.

Poorly reported into creating a sensational story where there isn’t one, this is irresponsible fear-mongering journalism that leaves the taxpayer unknowingly shouting to be worse off.

Rubbish, eh?