Grey boxes on poles in Tawa

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allan

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# 208259 3-Feb-2017 15:27

Anyone have any idea what these solar powered grey boxes mounted on poles in Tawa, Wellington might be? There are a number of them, they have no branding and have been around for at least 12 months.

This one is on the corner Main Road and Cambridge St in Tawa.

Gilco2

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# 1715008 3-Feb-2017 15:51

Cant help you but wondered the same. Have seen them popping up here in BOP and wondered what they are with their solar panels. Big brother watching perhaps

xcubed

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# 1715076 3-Feb-2017 16:51

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They're devices for monitoring traffic flow by looking for how long it takes bluetooth and wifi devices to travel between them.

Here's a video that shows you the internals:

JayADee

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# 1715086 3-Feb-2017 17:21

Amazing. Yay the privacy act though.

huckster

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# 1715087 3-Feb-2017 17:22

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It is the machine

timmmay

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# 1715090 3-Feb-2017 17:27

It's a secret, experimental government effort in mind control. They want to convince people Tawa is a good place to live ;)

sbiddle

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# 1715118 3-Feb-2017 18:56

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JayADee: Amazing. Yay the privacy act though.

NZTA have been using these for years and last time I asked don't have any public privacy policy in regards to use storage/use of the data.

blakamin

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# 1715119 3-Feb-2017 19:04

timmmay:

It's a secret, experimental government effort in mind control. They want to convince people Tawa is a good place to live ;)

It would be if they had a good pub or a bottleshop... Drink your Tawa away! :D

sbiddle:

JayADee: Amazing. Yay the privacy act though.

NZTA have been using these for years and last time I asked don't have any public privacy policy in regards to use storage/use of the data.

Obviously they'd be using MAC addresses.. Long live metadata!*

*Now available in govt databases everywhere.

wellygary

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# 1715125 3-Feb-2017 19:37

blakamin:
Obviously they'd be using MAC addresses.. Long live metadata!*

You are driving a car with a large unique number screwed onto the front and back bumper ( which is most likely directly linked to both you and your address in a single database ) ...and you are worried about bluetooth metadata......

blakamin

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# 1715128 3-Feb-2017 19:49

wellygary:
blakamin:

Obviously they'd be using MAC addresses.. Long live metadata!*

You are driving a car with a large unique number screwed onto the front and back bumper ( which is most likely directly linked to both you and your address in a single database ) ...and you are worried about bluetooth metadata......

Yeah, and if I'm driving a work vehicle... And I'm not passing a camera every 2 minutes.

BT and WiFi.

But that's alright, "if you have nothing to hide, there's nothing to worry about" :/

Some of us value some privacy.

JayADee

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# 1715186 3-Feb-2017 22:25

And ever since I read Dave Eggers Book, 'The Circle' this kind of stuff reminds me of it.
Link to summary: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/12/the-circle-dave-eggers-review

Very enjoyable (if flawed as a story) novel. Recommended reading to make you think about some possible outcomes of all this surveillance.

Still, pretty neat way to monitor traffic from the Geek in me.