My Way News - Waste watchers? UK group fears trash bin spies
My Way News reports: "It's the new front in the nanny state: Microchips placed in garbage bins to monitor how much people throw away. [...] The advocacy group Big Brother Watch found through a series of Freedom of Information requests that many local governments, called councils in Britain, are installing the microchips in trash cans distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them - in part because officials know the move would be unpopular. [...] The government's ambitious information-gathering plans go still further. Security officials working on counterterrorism plans are lobbying for the power to monitor every e-mail, text, and phone call made in the U.K. The country already maintains an extensive DNA database that is, per capita, the largest in the world."