Your Smart Electricity Meters Can Track Every Activity, Court Ruling Warns

Nowadays, smart devices have taken the wicked roads, contrary to the original plan of helping the citizens of the world. A few days back, we heard how remotely controlled home devices, doorbells, and thermostats are being used to inculcate fear among domestic abuse victims.

Now another acute case of smart devices has come to light where a mere modern electricity meter has been found to interfere with home WiFi routers and many other internet devices.

It has been found that many of these devices collect private information that can be used to predict your daily routine like when you sleep, or when you wake up, and if you’re at your home or not.

Many citizens under the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness have been fighting city-owned electric utility in United States Federal Court after they mandated that “Smart meters” should be installed on every home and business, back in 2011.

In a big win for Illinois citizens, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Fourth Amendment indeed protects the citizens against the energy consumption data collected by smart meters.

The court pointed out that the smart devices, in fact, collect information for a deeper insight which can be obtained by thermal imagining tech.

Jamie Williams, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: “The Seventh Circuit recognized that smart meters pose serious risks to the privacy of all of our homes, and that rotely applying analog-era case law to the digital age simply doesn’t work.”

While this ruling is only for the state of Illinois, Jamie hopes that the same judgment is followed all around the county and everyone understands the risks of data collected by smart meters.

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