Smart Meters: How the Government Monitors Your Every Move

Smart Meters: How the Government Monitors Your Every Move







Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

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:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/smart-meters-how-government-monitors.html