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Privacy concerns scotch Smart Meters plan in Holland

Smart-Meter Back at the beginning of December, I wrote a piece and spoke on the radio regarding Ed Miliband's announcement that the government would soon be rolling-out Smart Meters across the UK – and the danger that this posed to the sovereignty of our energy supply and the uncertainties surrounding the information that utility companies would now have immediate access to.

Today the Times has reported that:

The £8.1 billion rollout of smart meters in Britain could be knocked off course unless the Government and Ofgem, the energy regulator, act urgently to convince the public that the information provided by the meters will be held securely.

Fears that data on energy consumption could be misused by criminals, police or insurance companies have curtailed the compulsory introduction of the meters in the Netherlands, according to a report by Datamonitor, the market analyst.

Dutch consumer and privacy organisations were concerned that information relayed as frequently as every 15 minutes could allow employees of utility companies to see when properties were empty or when householders had bought expensive new gadgets.

These were points that I made in both my blog and on the radio – namely, that what happens after the readings are transmitted had not been given the sort of rigorous checking and vetting that the meters themselves had been subjected to.

The doomsday scenario is that once such intricate details of a person's energy habits are made available, the government could start proscribing ever-more individual taxation or even cut-off someone's energy supply on the basis of how much they were using.

The u-turn by the Dutch government represents a tremendous victory for privacy campaigners in the Netherlands and demonstrates that if enough noise is made about a civil liberties issue, eventually politicians will fold rather than face an electoral backlash.

By Dylan Sharpe 

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Overbearing state, Privacy
  • http://alastairs-place.net alastair

    Smart meters are hardly an example of the overbearing state, or, as I’ve said before, a genuine privacy issue.
    I *want* smart meters in my home because they’ll allow me to see how much energy I’m using from minute to minute, *and* I’ll get accurate bills from my suppliers without having to constantly submit meter readings.
    As for taxation or goverment proscription of use of more than X units or some such, I agree, that’s highly undesirable. However, the lack of smart metering doesn’t prevent government from doing either of those things if it wants.
    And as for the “they’ll be able to tell if you’re home or have expensive stuff in your house”, as I’ve already pointed-out, “they” can *already* tell that at a fairly fine-grained level, albeit in most cases not down to individual properties. (However, out in the countryside, there are cases where they *will* be able to tell at the level of individual properties *already*.)
    Please don’t over-blow this issue. I understand that some people do have worries, and those should be addressed, but please keep it in perspective—this isn’t going to result in a police state, and it *is* likely to save people money on their bills in the long run, as well as cutting out the problem of estimated bills.

  • Gareth

    “I *want* smart meters in my home because they’ll allow me to see how much energy I’m using from minute to minute, *and* I’ll get accurate bills from my suppliers without having to constantly submit meter readings.”
    Then you have one and foot the cost of installing one yourself.
    Some issues with smart meters are how secure they are (apparently not very), who would have access to the information (Police with or without a warrant? It’d be ideal for spotting covert cannabis factories…) and how often the data is sent. Once a quarter would be enough for billing reasons so why do it any more than that? Power stations can already guage demand without the need for smart meters so that is no reason for them either.
    There is also the issue of control – in times of heavy need and risk of blackouts would energy useage be rationed?
    It sometimes looks like energy companies have given up trying to provide more energy and are looking for ways to run us closer to the limits of production instead. That isn’t good, rational or cost effective.

  • John Pickworth

    Smart meters sound like a nifty idea… and given the limited information provided by Government and the utilities in the UK its easy to overlook, or not even be aware of, the downsides.
    In the USA however, these entities MUST tell the public everything. There, the power companies seem positively excited by the future potential of the technology. Including tiered charging, being able to remotely disconnect customers or even control ‘smart appliances’ in the customer’s homes. Once this technology is universal; how long will it be before a Government mandates that a high usage customer has their power rationed? Perhaps people’s washing machines or air conditioning systems being switched off remotely?
    Marry this ability with the growth of unreliable renewable energy (like wind) and you can see why a Government would be tempted to ‘control’ power consumption in the future.
    Check out the New York Times:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/14meters.html

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