Residential utility customers have a legitimate expectation to preserve individual and behavioral privacy with regard to energy-related or water consumption data collected by the utility. Credible government reports and security experts have explained that there are privacy concerns that the granular data collected by smart meters will reveal the activities of people inside of a home by measuring their usage frequently over time. Furthermore, there is deep concern that inadequate cyber security measures surrounding the digital transmission of smart meter data will expose such data to misuse by authorized and unauthorized users of the data. Residential utility customers have currently only surrendered a privacy interest to the extent necessary to account for monthly billing by the utility, unless otherwise explicitly granted. Normally, only one energy or water usage measurement per month is necessary for the billing process.
I always come back to this:
The problem isn’t the technology, the problem is that the technology isn’t sufficiently regulated.
If we have real privacy regulation in the US and the EU (the EU is at least starting to take things seriously but still has a lot of regulation written by lawyers instead of technicians), we might be able to implement this kind of technology without these kind of fears, because there would be severe penalties for using consumer data in such a way.
Because the reality is, spying on consumers isn’t the only reason companies are moving to a smart-grid type setup, and it’s because it gives them a lot more real-time data about how their grid is functioning and where inefficiencies lie. That’s a good thing, and it’s just a bonus in their eyes that they can also spy on the energy use habits of their customers.
If we had strict regulation of that kind of data, we might not be in such a position to have to worry about such services, because we could rest easy knowing if they were caught doing such a thing, that their asses would be nailed to the wall.
Of course, that also means we would have to solve certain aspects of corporate governance that allow individuals to avoid going to jail due to “incorporation.” No, that shit has to stop, too. We can’t let these rich asshats hide behind their corporate coffers for their wrongdoing because you can’t put a business in jail. So if a business is a person, give it the damn death penalty and nationalize that shit if they’re caught fucking with consumer data.
Anyway, just my two cents. It’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s how it’s used, and how there effectively isn’t any legislation and regulation to prevent its abuse.
If I could trust an authority to create effective regulation, and trust the company to follow it, then I wouldn’t mind the technology itself.
I personally don’t buy that personal meters provide much more useful data about grid performance than if the continuous meter was placed further up the line (maybe at junctions and transformers?). To me, the risks far outweigh the benefits. The push for these individualized meters is really unsurprising though, since it provides far more financial benefit to them if they can measure each user’s energy use and tailor pricing to that individual. Even if they could guarantee that data never left the utility, its existence is still problematic just by the nature of the oppositional relationship between utility and the user.
And if we knew they weren’t massive fucking liars.
I get a quarterly energy report stating I use 50% more energy than “other comparable homes”.
After looking into it, “other comparable homes” is houses ±300sq ft, and within 6 miles.
What it’s not compared to is my neighbors, who’s houses are built exactly like mine. I’m in a development of 100 units.
So why would they compare me to places anywhere from 30% smaller to 30% larger, rather than units where I am (so identical weather conditions), and near same construction? Never mind that 30% smaller, and within six miles, would include apartments/townhouses/row homes in the city, where temps average higher in the winter, and often have steam heat (provided as part of the building) because they’re old.
Because it doesn’t support their end goals.
Thankfully though, they did cause me to measure everything in my house, and read all the neighboring meters. Turns out my consumption is anywhere from 20% less than others to about the same. My neighbors run their AC far more than I do.
50% more than the average, my ass. Lying pricks.
The problem is we live in America, where “self-regulation” is the rule.
They can’t get away with lying when it comes to well-crafted and well-enforced regulation. America just doesn’t want to do it partially because of the revolving door between Regulators and Regulated. If you work for Verizon for 15 years as a lawyer and then move on to be, say, the Chair of the FCC, it’s pretty fucking valid to question whether or not you’re actually working in the interests of the citizens.
In America, that exact issue was treated as a nothingburger, so much so that the man in question made a “comedy video” making fun of the idea that he was still working with Verizon’s interests in mind. We let corruption flow so much in the USA, the elites literally joke about it like they’re not rubbing it in our faces.
There are ways to organize governance that prevent this, and you just happen to live in a country where laws like that are a non-starter because all the politicians and regulators are paid off and owned by the people being regulated.
USA is a fucking racket, top to bottom. That’s the issue.
Liars can’t lie if they’re forced to regularly prove what they’re doing and have to bring evidence and have to prove that evidence hasn’t been tampered with.