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Smart Meters. If you peel the onion back on this latest technology being pushed by public utilities, such as PG&E, SD G&E and SC Edison, take note of the potential for additional snooping on our private lives. While some may call this another conspiracy theory I would caution each of us to research these new Smart meters before agreeing to have them installed at our homes.
Think about it. There are those in government who are promoting tracking our driving on freeways to bill us per mile to raise money for infrastructure maintenance. They already know where most of us are 24/7 due to the chip in our cell phones. And let’s not overlook Google Earth where they can even watch us taking a dip in our backyard pools. I’ll skip the UN Agenda 21 conspiracy which may become another area for debate.
Internet article:
‘Have you heard about the new “smart meters” that are being installed in homes all across America? Under the guise of “reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and “reducing energy bills”, utility companies all over the United States are forcing tens of millions of American families to accept sophisticated surveillance devices in their homes. Currently, approximately 9 percent of all electric meters in the U.S. have been converted over to smart meters. It is being projected that by 2012, the number of smart meters in use will rise to 52 million, and the federal government is spending a lot of money to help get these installed everywhere.
Eventually the goal is to have these smart meters in all of our homes and if that ever happened there would essentially be no more privacy. Once installed, a smart meter monitors your home every single minute of every single day and it transmits very sophisticated data about your personal behavior back to the utility company. So can’t we just tell the utility companies that we don’t want these stupid things?
Unfortunately, in many areas of the country you can’t. For example, one outraged resident of California contacted the utility company and was told that if he did not consent to taking a smart meter he would receive no service.’
Following is part of another posted report from CA Political News.
By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, NoisyRoom.net, 7/10/11
Coming soon to your home unless you stop them – and you may never even get a choice – the insidious Smart Meter and the end of privacy as we know it. People don’t want these Big Brother devices installed and watching/recording their every move. Things are about to get ‘real’ between the government/Agenda 21 pushers and We The People. And if a fight comes, my money is on the Tea Party – they are a scrappy bunch and freedom lovers to boot.
The dance has already begun in certain places around the nation. In Marin, California, residents are slugging it out with PG&E and the FCC, UCLA’s epidemiology department and the California Public Utilities Commission. Looks like the Nanny State spared no expense in the fight to control Americans and I do mean ‘control.’ From Marin Magazine:
“Smart” gas and electricity meters, so called because they use wireless signals to transmit up-to-the-minute usage data rather than requiring visits from meter readers, have been a source of controversy in California since PG&E began installing them in late 2009. Concerns about privacy and accuracy have created an upswell of opposition from Bakersfield to Santa Cruz, but perhaps none as forceful as that in Marin. Here, educated and experienced activists—many of whom have been fighting against cell phone towers and other sources of electromagnetic radiation for a decade or more—have made smart meters the latest cause célèbre. And their message, which hinges on both health and individual autonomy, is catching on. Cotati, Bolinas and Novato have joined Fairfax in opposing the meters, as have the Marin Association of Realtors and the county Board of Supervisors.
Yet PG&E doesn’t need permission from communities to install the meters. In fact, 100,000 of the 216,000 smart meters slated for Marin are already in place. Statewide, PG&E has installed nearly 8 million of 10 million meters planned and expects to wrap up the project by early 2012. Similar rollouts are happening nationwide, with PG&E leading the way.
So much for getting your permission. They are going to cram Agenda 21 and Smart Meters right down America’s throat whether they want it or not. But before you think these were conservatives objecting, look again. It was primarily liberals. I do believe that we have found a meeting place in the middle – both sides hate big, controlling government. Notice I did not use the word Progressive, as the very definition of Progressivism is a love for big government. And while the liberal residents in California are concerned for their bodily health, conservatives are concerned for their Constitutional health, rights and freedoms. Both want their privacy.From The American Dream:
Jerry Day, an electronics and media expert from Burbank California, recently detailed many of the ways that smart meters act as surveillance devices when they are installed in our homes….
* They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.
* They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
* They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
* Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.
* Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
* Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
* “Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.
* It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.
Saddle up boys and girls… Things are about to get very interesting in these United States of America. In a fascist sort of way that is.
Here we are at ‘opposites’ day again… In the name of reducing energy costs, the government wants to replace all meters with these creepy Smart Meters. The meters will cause energy bills to ‘necessarily skyrocket’ (wait, where have I heard that before?) and have a whole set of nifty nasty side effects such as failing systems and the opening of your personal information to hackers. The Feds are spending a ton of money on this conversion process and ask yourself, why is that? It’s obviously not to save money as the costs are astronomical. It’s also not to save the environment as it virtually does nothing to help it. But it does give government control over you – when and for how long to shut down your power, how much you have to pay for said power, usage monitoring, etc. This is all being done in part to catch the smallest of entrepreneurs who work from home to force them to get business licenses and submit to oversight by the government, with the added bennie of forcing many of them out of business. This is the Progressive groundwork to drastically raise the cost of energy, raise taxes and fees and to box Americans in, corralling them with judgments over their income, credit ratings, habits, etc. It’s a Marxist’s dream come true and the ultimate nightmare for freedom-loving Americans. How do you like Obama now America? Time for a do-over in 2012 – if we get that far.
Once installed, these meters will record a plethora of data concerning your personal lives and it will be stored in databases that you and I will never get access to. And the data could be wrong or flawed, but you will have little recourse to correct it. Literally life and death decisions will be made by our overlords using that data. Count on it. And unless you want to live entirely off the grid (and many are moving in that direction), you will submit. The data will be used by law enforcement and the government to ‘protect’ you. Do you really think your Constitutional rights will even figure into the equation down the road?
When big business and government, along with politicians, combine to do what is best for the ‘American citizen,’ it can’t be good. GE has their grubby fingers in everyone else’s pie over this travesty. They will make money and gain exponential power doing so. For extra points class, what form of government is represented by the bonding of big business and political power?
Gilbert comment. One simple solution to this privacy concern is to grant permission for rate payers to “opt-out.”
Email from LA.
“Hello Larry,
The answer to your question is: YES! even without smart grids.
But on another interesting note, this issue nicely ties Conservative/Libertarian point of views with those on the Left concerned about harmful environmental affects (I will pass this on to my cousin, Paula).
Thanks,
Bob.”
Okay, I’ll bite. How do these devices track your daily activities? Hard to imagine how electricity usage translates into that much information. Seems one would need a camera implanted in this device, in strategic places, in order to gather the data set forth in this post.
Laura. While I leave to an “important” meeting in a few minutes let me give you some feedback.
First. During the energy crisis a few years ago we agreed to permit SC Edison to monitor and control our A/C during high power usage. To avoid black outs or brown outs they can shut down our A/C units. That is one easy illustration of big bropther monitoring us.
As to the smart meters. When we go on vacation we notify the Register not to deliver our newspaper so they do not pile up on the driveway where potential burglars can detect that no one is home.
The same is true here. If you are using your utilites to wash and dry clothes on a Monday, have the air at 70 degrees with your big screen TV on at certain hours of the day, that data surely can be tracked.
Now what if you are on vacation and a third party can access your usage. If it flat lines there is a chance that no one is home. That addresses the possible security issue raised by Jerry Day whom I do not know.
Got to go breakfast and golf await me. Oh oh. I just notifed you that I will not be home. The good news is that our security dog is not joining me.
That makes sense, Larry, but how can they tell if you’re having sex???
Laura. Perhaps you might call your local provider and ask them that question. If you get a response feel free to share it with all of us.
Larry,
You posted Jerry Day writing: “It is possible for example, with analysis of certain ‘Smart Meter’ data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.”
I am not being flippant; I honestly want to know how this possibly can be accomplished. Yes, a medical device will provide information relating to electricity usage, but the rest of it erodes Mr. Day’s credibility. He is being shamelessly sensationalistic. The article was intriguing up until that remark, but I had to call that silliness out.
Laura. Thank you for your assessment. I’m glad you are shooting the message source and not myself as the messenger. More often than not the posts on the Orange Juice generate lively debate. You have now joined our family.
Smart meters are designed to work with smart appliances. New appliances in theory will have devices that will be able to talk to your electrical utility. So yes, they probably could figure out when you turn on your tv or blow dry your hair etc.
Hopefully we won’t be forced to buy appliances with built-in spy capabilities. Republicans that back corporate monopolies will welcome the ability of Google, facebook, and Walmart etc. to keep track of people’s habits. Democrats that don’t believe in civil liberties will probably welcome this as well.
They have been doing this in South Korea for 15 years.
They have devices that check the traffic and wake you accordingly, the same with weather and security issues.
For some it’s called convienence.
Big brother is definitely something that bothers me about these meters. However, there are a few other issues as well:
1. Power: Depending on the make and model and on how far away the wireless signal needs to travel to get to the nearest utility pole radio, they use an extra 1 – 10 watts. Guess who has to pay for it? The consumer. This also means there is more demand to build more power generating facilities considering the number of smart meters in place.
2. Health: Who wants microwave radiation in the 2.4 GHz range zapping your baby 24/7 in the room next to your meter?
3. Stimulus Funds: The utility companies jumped on board because they knew they could have taxpayers fund this under the guise of smart grid technology.
So, we get forced to pay for this upgrade and have to pay for the extra electricity it uses just so utility companies can lay off more employees? This should have never have happened. Typical behavior of most Republicans and Democrats. I imagine Republicans love the part about outsourcing jobs to big brother and democrats love buzz words like smart grid technology.
Alex. As to your comment about health and safety we have fought that battle with SC Edison at the CPUC.
There are some heavy hitters in industry with deep pockets and friends in high places.
Notice that for the past decade or more how potential connection between cell phones and brain cancers has been swept under a rug. We have seen recent warnings coming from testing by scientists in Europe.
I know, I read the minutes of some of those early meetings where those issues were brought up.
I told SCE I did not want a smart meter and they said they would turn off my electricity if I didn’t get one. So much for freedom of choice.
Smart meters are wrong on just about every level. I hope people realize corporate big brother and government big brother can’t be trusted when it comes to this technology. Facebook no doubt has more information about the personal lives of us Americans than the NSA. However, both will want this data for different reasons and both will likely abuse the power of this data if citizens aren’t careful.
Just say, NO !!
*We have had our digital controlled from the main office electric meters now for about
ten months or more. The first three months…our electric rates were lower than whale
snot. Then they started climbing ever so little and now they are just about three times
what our original rates were. The cool thing is….SCE or Pg & E can punitively raise your rates ….anytime you step out of line. Hey, who cares? Big brother now can sense what your next click on the computer will be. They have 1000 contingencies for
what you are going to do and when. No biggie….it all part and parcel of being tied into the “Computer Age”! The sad part of course is that if you have two brain cells to rub together…….no more porn sites….ever! Hey, that is probably why Anthony Weiner and all this idiots are going crazy on Facebook, Twitter or whatever. We just want the NFL Network on our Cable TV but that seems to be a major malfunction as well. SCE is going to charge whatever they want to whoever they want. So. Cal Gas is putting in their digital meters in a couple of years too. We guess AT & T, Verizon and the rest will soon be following the useage model soon – as well. We guess Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay won….afterall. Well, there is no stopping them now! We are all just tools in the shed…some sharper and some duller than others.
We should not have to pay one dime extra $$$ to opt out of these Big Brother, unconstitutional SMART METERS.
The California Public Utilities Code § 328.2 states “The Legislature finds and declares both of the following: (a) In order to ensure that all core customers of a gas
corporation continue to receive safe basic gas service in a competitive market, each existing gas corporation should continue to provide this essential service. (b) No customer should have to pay separate fees for utilizing services that protect public or customer safety.”
We are working hard in the Orange County area to inform our neighbors of the coming Smart Meters. Everyone deserves to know the dangers of the Smart Grid. Former CIA Director James Woolsey calls the Smart Grid a “really, really stupid grid”.
Check out our website Stop OC Smart Meters
Hey Larry….. Mr. Powerhouse…..Yea… its pretty horrible they way Government has intruded into our lives…. Its starts out as a small little thing then grows out of control. Good to see you out here… Somehow, your name was sent to my email from one of those contact updates…