[adw]

Well, what they were doing was probably never illegal. That doesn't mean the City of London are obliged to let them do it – they're their bins.

[Tichy]

I thought it was the company responsible for the bins doing it. My bad.

[desas]

It was the company who installed the bins. The City of London gave the company a contract for the bins, this tracking is something that has developed after the original contract was signed.

[keithpeter]

And apparently the City of London only found out about the tracking from the news[1]. Powerful people don't like surprises like that.

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/12/spy_bins_scrapped_fr...