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Smart Grid Could Pose Threat To Privacy
Presto Vivace writes "Brian Krebs of the Washington Post reports on a study jointly released Tuesday by the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner and the Future of Privacy Forum. It seems that in the process of collecting all that feedback about energy use, utility companies will inevitably collect a great deal of information about us. From the article: 'Instead of measuring energy use at the end of each billing period, smart meters will provide this information at much shorter intervals, the report notes. Even if electricity use is not recorded minute by minute, or at the appliance level, information may be gleaned from ongoing monitoring of electricity consumption such as the approximate number of occupants, when they are present, as well as when they are awake or asleep. For many, this will resonate as a "sanctity of the home" issue, where such intimate details of daily life should not be accessible.'"
The power company will be able to determine that I sleep at night and I'm not home during the day.
Or maybe I'm not home at night and I sleep during the day.
And that there is 6 people living in the house, or that when I use power I use inefficient appliances.
Or I have 12 ppl living in the house with efficient appliances.
Personally - I really don't care what kind of dodgy information they could gleen from a smart meter. I only really care about the fact that power could (or will here in Oz) cost more.
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
I run my house off of batteries and charge them using off-peak, cheap power.
Oh wait, my usage pattern indicates I've got some large, expensive batteries!
Back to the drawing board.