Australian Smart Meter Data Shared Far and Wide 172
New submitter ferrisoxide.com writes "In Victoria (Australia), detailed information about electricity customers' power usage, which gives insights into when a house is occupied, is being shared with third parties including mail houses, debt collectors, data processing analysts and government agencies."
Lovely (Score:5, Insightful)
Data security is such a good thing. Good thing the hackers didn't get it.
And with the data retention proposals of course no isp is going to be tempted to defray the cost with either on-site or outsourced datamining. And all storage is onsite and under their control.
From the FTA
"An Origin spokesman said the portal was fully compliant with Australian privacy legislation. He said the additional information requested about each household ''adds to the richness of the Origin Smart experience''.
Customer information can only be accessed by staff involved in billing. He said the electricity retailer only shared information with third parties when they had a ''legitimate business need to do so in order to meet our service obligations to our customers''."
"with third parties" the easiest way for the NSA to get all the data in the world would be to sell cheap datamining services as the Narly Stats Advisers.
And government and business wonder why people don't trust them.
Re:Information not the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The question isn't whether or not information can or should be collected, but how it's used.
Information that isn't collected can't be abused.
Re:Information not the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
An Origin spokesman said the portal was fully compliant with Australian privacy legislation. He said the additional information requested about each household ''adds to the richness of the Origin Smart experience''.
Legislation that isn't specific essentially ensures that data will be misused.
Then again, to the people who passed the law, that was probably a feature, not a bug.
You bloody fucking idiots! (Score:5, Insightful)
You took a perfectly good cause and ruined it in the name of profit!!!! You have just fed the tinfoil hat crown and ruined smart meters world wide for years to come.
Let's think about this? Hey spouse, want to get a new smart meter? Hell no, I do that and the government will spy on me, the debt collectors will use it against me, do I look like I was born yesterday?
No one is going to want one of these things attached to their house now knowing how they have actually been used. Why the hell couldn't you leave well enough alone and use it for what it was actually meant for?
Smart meter technology could have been one of the greatest real world technological green technologies we have seen in a long time. Instead some short sighted, can't see the next week because tomorrow is in the way greedy bastards ruined it to sell their customers out to debt collectors!
Words cannot begin to describe how short sided and idiotic these people were. I'm sorry they just can't.
I've spent a fair amount of time in Melbourne, I thought well of the people down there. What the hell happened?
1984... (Score:4, Insightful)
is here!
Re:Shocked (Score:5, Insightful)
With the number of things we need to worry about these days, smart metering is absolutely at the bottom. There are a million ways to fool it, and the information isn't all that interesting any way (unless you get really excited about when people use hair dryers and air con).
So you are willfully neglecting the principle, merely because you see no current significance to its presently immediate applications?
Most of these "things to worry about" boil down to a few major philosophical ideas. You can understand that and focus on the major ideas. You can also fail to understand that and see millions of "issues" that you'd never have time for because you are unable to grasp how they are interrelated and proceed from the same root. Life is full of choices.