Opinion: Spying and the next generation internet

According to ex-CIA chief David Petraeus, the emergence of an “Internet of Things” constitutes a “treasure trove” that will transform the face of spy craft as we know it.

A lesser known aspect of smart meter technology that some find equally disturbing is the ability of smart meters to reveal with great accuracy your personal household electricity use.

An oft touted industry expression is “granularity;” the greater the granularity, the more detailed your electricity profile, and smart meters generate huge amounts of specific data; what appliances you use, when you’re out of the house, if you’re watching television at 3 a.m. For utility companies, all that data presents a rich new “revenue stream” and it is inevitable that your data will be sold to third parties; data miners researching product saturation, insurance companies, law enforcement. The journal Science posits that data gleaned from smart meters could be used in health research:

“Algorithms might be designed, for example, to infer how many times per day a refrigerator door was opened (relevant to dietary and obesity studies).”

It’s easy to be blase over these encroachments because we’re already tracked every time we google something, use a GPS device, send emails, texts, yet the liberties taken by smart meters add a frightening new dimension.

According to ex-CIA chief David Petraeus, the emergence of an “Internet of Things” constitutes a “treasure trove” that will transform the face of spy craft as we know it. “With the rise of the “smart home,” you’d be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real time... Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next generation Internet ...”

Many new appliances are designed with embedded smart chips to interact with your smart meter, programmable not only by you (if you’ve made a sizable investment in the interface equipment) but by your utility. Do you want your utility company, or, incidentally, hackers, to have access to your thermostat, appliances, alarm system? Apparently, a war is brewing between the smart grid industry with its numerous stake holders who want everything to be “smart” and those who seek to increase basic efficiency. Every smart chip appliance in your house would add to the overall levels of RF radiation, though utilities are adept at downplaying the danger; they say smart meter radiation is “equivalent to a cell phone” (not).

Engineered to gather our personal information and to facilitate remote control over our energy use, smart meter technology constitutes a breathtaking erosion of our privacy. Plain and simple, they are surveillance devices. The way utilities and third parties evade the protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment is to categorize those trespasses as a product of doing business; customers choose to do business with the utility, therefore the data generated is a product of that choice. Never mind the fact that unless you’re off the grid, you have no choice in your utility provider.

The new wireless smart meter on your house is anything but innocuous; it typifies the banality of evil. Call your utility’s customer service, request it’s removal and the return of your old analog meter — there is no fee.

Martine Victor
Manchester, Vermont

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Smart Meters: How the Government Will Monitor Your Every Move

Smart meters have been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) who says their risks are minimal. However, many customers blame them for causing health problems and house fires. These devices are responsible for two-way communication with utilities corporations and government; helping them spy on their customers.

Researchers in Germany have concluded that when privacy implications were analyzed, they proved that customers were being surveilled by their utility company with encrypted data to determine whether or not the customers were home.

They are marketed as a way to save energy on monthly bills as well as reduce carbon emissions. Jim Marston, vice president of energy for the Environmental Defense Fund, maintains that “if done right, smart meters allow us to eliminate waste from the system. It’s not unlike the revolution in telephones. These are things that allow you to know when you are gone and to turn off all your lights. Or to allow your appliances to turn on only when renewable power is available, or for utilities to figure out where outages are.”

In Australia, the energy corporation, Origin Energy, forces customers to fill out online forms that request detailed personal information that is shared with private sector corporations. This data is given to government authorities electricity installers, data processing analysts, IT service providers, debt collection and credit reporting agencies.

In California, smart meters give hourly reports of electrical usage through wireless connections. Yet the California Public Service Commission (CPSC) received complaints that the data received by utilities corporations led to rate hikes.

Pacific gas and Electric (PGE) claims that their smart meters are in compliance with FCC regulations. Most notably is that the installation of the device requires professional contractors, not utility workers, as if the usual case. PGE contracts others such as Wellington and Corix to install smart meters. These corporations hire temp workers who are not qualified and this may lead to fires and explosions.

In some states, an opt-out program has been installed where customers pay a fee for analog meters. Colorado, Maine and Arizona provide this service while Maryland and the District of Columbia does not.

The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), a think-tank for Internet policy in Britain, asserts that smart meters may be used as blackmail or fuel for a hostile attack against the UK government by a foreign power or a terrorist group. This information would be most likely sold to identity thieves as well as able to be manipulated by energy corporations.

Smart meters have the capacity to spy on you in your home. They collect data on the electrical usage in your home, then that information is remotely sent to a central database at your utilities corporation.

In March, CIA Director David Petraeus commented on the “internet of things” explaining that: “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing . . . The latter now going for cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”

In December of 2011, the FCC announced plans to transition unused over-the-air wireless bands into Super Wi-Fi. This super Wi-Fi will use low frequencies (from 470 to 698 megahertz) that have longer wavelengths and travel father; and even penetrate walls.

An indicator of these plans can be found on the underside of any electronic device in your home. Even on the underside of a simple calculator, toaster oven, and even your refrigerator; you will find the following: “This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.”

What this disclaimer means is that this device is not allowed to jam or block any signals and must accept any incoming signal given (by FCC regulations under Part 15 of the FCC Rules).

The Vermont Department of Health released a report in 2012 that stated smart meters use radio signals to communicate with the utility corporations and the exposure to radio frequency radiation (RFR) is detrimental to human health. The human body absorbs a wide range of thermal energy and capable of expelling that energy.

However high exposure to radio frequencies breaks down the body’s natural abilities.

Source: Activistpost