We still have our clunky old power meter. However, by the end of the year we will join everyone in Ontario with a shining new Smart Meter as seen in the photo.
These monitors are very efficient in communicating via wireless technology when and how much energy is being used. There is an incentive to use more discretionary energy during off peak hours with the reward of lower rates.
However, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner is concerned about all this vigilance when eventually the Smart Grid will enable power companies to map one's entire energy and water use of all appliances.
"All of this information, if compiled, forms a library of personal data relating to your usage patterns inside the household. In the past, this information was sacrosanct." Her office has produced guidelines entitled Privacy by Design, written with input by the energy companies.
The Smart Meter is just one more way that people may leave a digital footprint. Your computer use, the emails, the places you browse, social media, the information you leave on websites, your telephone records, the location of your home, the places you visit with your car, your energy record is a vast umbrella of information.
It encourages one to think about if we are happy with all this information in the hands of others and what kinds of restrictions need to exist.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. ~ Wendell Phillips
