Smart meters — utility meters that provide detailed, real-time information on energy use — promise an easy way to bring down residential power consumption. They help consumers sniff out energy hogs and, by conveying data wirelessly, eliminate the need for armies of meter readers. But, great hopes — and $3 billion in stimulus money — aside, the meters have gotten off to a rocky start.
Last week in Texas, a state senator responding to consumer complaints about skyrocketing bills asked the Public Utility Commission to halt Oncor‘s installation of the devices. This week, the California PUC announced that it would investigate similar complaints about meters installed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.. (Both utilities insist the bills stemmed from heavier usage, not the meters.)
Then San Francisco-based online privacy watchdog the Electronic Frontier Foundation seized the opportunity to send the PUC a laundry list of related privacy concerns. The group believes marketers and law enforcement agencies will pressure utilities to hand over smart meter data. The fears might sound unfounded, but EFF cites an example in which, even before smart meters, Texas police accessed a utility’s computers to search for residents whose power use suggested that they might be growing marijuana indoors.
Hi,
funny, that one of the models you show here are called “Echelon”… (see Wikipedia about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(signals_intelligence) )
Actually, smartmeters raise some serious concerns about people’s privacy: they are basically able to track people’s behaviour inside their private homes when using electrical devices or consuming water (shower, toilet, kitchen).
That’s why we, a a non-profit human rights organization based in Germany, would demand smartmeters only, if the behavioral data they gather are only revealed to the owner, but not the water or electricity company.
We actually believe, that a healthy democratic system need to protect privacy of the people to stay healthy and peaceful.
In short: a perfect smartmeter would inform the owner about his behavior and may give tips to her/him for lowering the consumption of electricity and water, but may only send the total amount to the water or electricity company for billing purposes. They do not need to know more.
Our hope is, that also environmentalists understand, that surveilling companies is good (forcing them to cause less social or environmental damage), but surveillance of private life is bad, because we need privacy for participating at democracy.
Viele Grüße/Best regards,
Ricardo Cristof Remmert-Fontes