Is Your Electricity Meter Spying On You? 405
lee1 writes "If you have a 'smart meter,' it is collecting data that can reveal when you wake up, when you leave for work and come home, when you go on vacation and when you take a shower. This data is commercially valuable and, if sold to third parties, can lead to privacy invasion on a massive scale. The California Public Utility Commission is reacting to the gas and electric company's mass installation of these meters with new proposals for strong privacy protections."
Re:But.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Funny. I thought they were there so they could rape people in the face with excessively high power costs. Which are the result of massive conservation efforts.
Re:Privacy (Score:1, Interesting)
Just as you don't own your music, copy of MS software, facebook data, instant messages, and most things you put on the Internet.
Re:But.... (Score:3, Interesting)
If ordinary people can't afford to flush their toilets for every number one, they'll be a little more selective when they flush, or they'll buy water-conserving toilets, or they'll save their bath and laundry water to fill the toilet, or they'll move to a place where water is more abundant. All of these are good things for sustainable living.