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Reason

J.D. Tuccille

Sacramento Uses Smart Electric Meters To Spy on Residents

Sacramento Electricity Police EFF Adam Schwartz Marijuana the Sacramento Bee

In our brave new world of smart appliances and internet-connected everything (why would I want my dryer linked to WiFi?), a lot of things are much more convenient. Unfortunately, one thing that's become so much easier is exploiting those interconnected widgets for surveillance and control. In California, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has been caught monitoring people's electricity usage and reporting allegedly suspiciously high consumption to the cops. This isn't even the creepiest use of remote snooping on electricity usage.

Snooping for Marijuana Farms and Finding Electric Wheelchairs

"For a decade, the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) has been searching through all of its customers' energy data, and passed on more than 33,000 tips about supposedly 'high' usage households to police," according to Hudson Hongo and Adam Schwartz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

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