Smart meters could be ’spy in the home’

October 11, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

Smart meters will eliminate the need to take readings from traditional electricity and gas meters.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Smart meters could become a ’spy in the home’ by allowing social workers and health authorities to monitor households, adding to concern at Britain’s surveillance society.

The devices, which the government plans to install in every home by 2020, will also tell energy firms what sort of appliances are being used, allowing companies to target customers who do not reduce their energy consumption.

Privacy campaigners have expressed horror at the proposals, which come as two million homes have ’spy’ devices fitted to their rubbish bins by councils who record how much residents are recycling.

The government wants every home in Britain to have smart meters, which give users information on how to save energy and send real-time data direct to utility companies, eliminating the need for customers to stay at home for meter readings or to receive estimated bills.

The devices also pave the way for a national ’smart grid’, backed by David Cameron’s Conservatives, which would use the data to manage national demand more efficiently and advise households when it is cheapest to switch on appliances.

In its impact assessment, however, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) says there “is theoretically scope… for using the smart metering communications infrastructure to enable a variety of other services, such as monitoring of vulnerable householders by health authorities or social services departments.”

It adds: “Information from smart meters could also make it possible for a supplier to determine when electricity or gas was being used in a property and, to a degree, the types of technology that were being used within the property. This could be used to target energy efficiency advice and offers of measures, social programmes etc to householders.”

Doretta Cocks, founder of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: “This is Orwellian. We’re already under surveillance for what we put outside the home in bins and now we could be watched for what we’re doing inside as well.

“Most of us are happy to reduce our energy consumption or reduce waste but these measures always seem to come at the expense of our privacy. If I want advice on energy efficiency I will ask for it.” Read full article…