News

Bluetooth "spam" accusations as Torbay tries to fight litter

Torbay, a pleasant enough town on the coast of West England, has a litter problem. To solve it, it is going to put up Bluetooth wireless transmitters, to offer the litter louts advice on tidiness. If they want it.

The idea of using Bluetooth as a way of publicising things is pretty old, but Bluetooth is normally secure. You can't send a message to a mobile phone much more complex than "Hi, userX wants to send you a message."

That works pretty well if the target for the message is keen to have the information, of course. Many delegates to tech conferences and exhibitions will have seen these Bluetooth kiosks scattered around the exhibition hall, offering guidance, advice, or discounts, if you link up and download.

So the question is: "How keen will a drunken reveller be, at 2 AM, to be sent an advert saying: 'Don't drop that cigarette end in the street!' or 'Please Keep Torbay Tidy!' "or similar? Local paper (South Devon Herald Express) thinks: not very

A report quotes Torbay mayor Nick Bye welcoming the use of new technology: 

He said: "Getting the anti-litter message across to people who are out enjoying themselves is a challenge for the council, which is why we are delighted to be trialing such technology in Torbay. The Bluetooth pods are an environmentally friendly and modern way of communicating with people."

The idea may take some time to catch on with locals, who reckon the transmission of unwanted messages to phones is spam.

One citizen remarked that 

This is illegal unless the council gets permission from the phone holder first. This falls into the same category of e-mail spam, fax spam and telephone marketing without permission and a fine of £5000 is payable if you get caught.

And others encouraged the council to empty the skips (dumpsters) around the harbour first.

Look on the bright side: at least the anti-litter messages can't be left lying around on the ground, if they're Bluetooth messages.