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    Curiosity7's Avatar
    Curiosity7 Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #1

    Jul 10, 2017, 03:50 AM
    Electricity providers can track you by your consumption of electricity
    I started to use smart solutions for electricity consumption. And I found out some weaknesses in privacy politics.
    Did you know what kind of information do they take from you and how often?
    - They can track whether you are at home and what are you doing only by your electricity consumption.
    Is there any solution what allows you to protect the data, so electricity provider doesn't know what I'm doing?
    hfcarson's Avatar
    hfcarson Posts: 1,003, Reputation: 49
    Ultra Member
     
    #2

    Jul 10, 2017, 04:23 AM
    Who is they and why should we be worried about them?
    If you're attempting to hide illegal activity you're in the wrong place
    because you know this site is being monitored...
    joypulv's Avatar
    joypulv Posts: 21,591, Reputation: 2941
    current pert
     
    #3

    Jul 10, 2017, 05:23 AM
    A lot of electricity has variable rates set by times of peak and off peak consumption, and it's legal to monitor usage.
    They can't tell if I'm at home or not, and what I am doing, at home or away.
    E.g., my garden soaker hoses use a lot of electricity (well water pump) and they are on whether I'm home or not.
    Does your 'smart' device or app REALLY tell WHAT you are DOING? I don't believe it. It would have to be able to detect every place and item in your property, separately.

    I can understand a reason to give this matter some attention, but I for one am just not interested.
    People who grow pot with tons of lights worry about it, because authorities have often checked consumption in order to get clues about illegal activities. Maybe meth labs use a lot too? I don't know.
    You can argue it's an invasion of privacy, but you might lose unless you can show that it was done without other good circumstantial evidence first.
    Scanning all consumers would strike me as unconstitutional too.
    donf's Avatar
    donf Posts: 5,679, Reputation: 582
    Printers & Electronics Expert
     
    #4

    Jul 10, 2017, 07:50 AM
    Just exactly how do you think the various utility companies get the data they need to bill you for the electricity you use.
    talaniman's Avatar
    talaniman Posts: 54,327, Reputation: 10855
    Expert
     
    #5

    Jul 10, 2017, 09:22 AM
    What loopholes in your privacy policy agreement concerns you? Utility companies often sell their customer list to marketing partners (EVERY company does this to some extent or another), but that involves information that you provided to them like name, address, and services you buy to target junk mail and email for you to buy stuff.
    Stratmando's Avatar
    Stratmando Posts: 11,188, Reputation: 508
    Uber Member
     
    #6

    Jul 12, 2017, 08:43 AM
    If our water usage is high, Water Company notifies us of a Possible Leak.

    I have installed an Electricity usage Monitor for a customer. Inductive loops placed around all wires coming off all breakers. You can see Total usage of house as well as each of the circuits. Customer call me from his home up north, and said I may have left the garage light on, When I went to check, I had left the attic light on. And it was an LED bulb.
    I was looking through the APP and checked Pool Pump for last 30 days, It looked like a square wave, 12 hours on, 12 hours off every day, then notice the height of the square wave, and it showed an excessive load, was an obstruction in pump?

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