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.
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.