Renew collaborated with Presence Orb to come up with a trash can design capable of tracking consumers through the smartphones they carry. Renew describes these trash cans like "a cookie for the physical world." This seems like an invasive measure but the trash cans only pick up a user's unique device number and it is not illegal in the UK for websites to notify users that a tracking cookie is being used on them.
The aim of these data-collecting trash cans is meant to give companies more insight about the behaviors of its customers and in turn, display ads that are relevant to them.
There are 12 of these trash cans that have been set up throughout central London and they have tracked nearly a million smartphones in a single day and about 4 million in a week.
Consumer-Tracking Trash Cans
Renew's Trash Can Design Tracks Consumers Via Wi-Fi Usage
Trend Themes
1. Consumer-tracking Technology - Renew's trash can design highlights the potential for more consumer-tracking technology innovations.
2. Data-driven Advertising - Renew's trash can design highlights the potential for data-driven advertising innovations.
3. Privacy Concerns - Renew's trash can design highlights privacy concerns related to consumer-tracking technology.
Industry Implications
1. Marketing and Advertising - Renew's trash can design has potential disruptive innovation opportunities for the marketing and advertising industry.
2. Smart Waste Management - Renew's trash can design has potential disruptive innovation opportunities for the smart waste management industry.
3. Consumer Data Analysis - Renew's trash can design has potential disruptive innovation opportunities for the consumer data analysis industry.