Meters not so smart when it comes to privacy

If such information became publicly available, it would be possible to track and anticipate a household's movements. Privacy Commissioner John Edwards

Electricity companies should be doing more to reassure consumers that the information being collected by smart meters is being handled safely, the Privacy Commissioner says.

In an open letter to electricity retailers and distributors, John Edwards makes recommendations they could take to reassure people that their privacy is being protected.

About 70 per cent of New Zealand households have smart meters and this is likely to increase to 90 per cent within two years. The meters ensure users get a more accurate bill, but privacy groups are concerned about electricity data being used to track household occupancy.

Edwards accepted that distributors needed a certain level of detail about the network.

‘‘However, based on my investigations, it does not appear that they require household level data for network planning.’’

If such information became publicly available, it would be possible to track and anticipate a household’s movements, he said.

One solution was to aggregate the data so individuals households were not so identifiable. Meter data could be pulled together at the street level or a small group of households, rather than for individual households, he said.

‘‘Aggregating the data would alleviate the privacy concerns, allowing for provision of rich data for research and innovation while still protecting consumers’ reasonable expectations of privacy,’’ he said.

He also recommended that personal information was not collected unnecessarily or held for longer than necessary.

Companies could make assurances about the use of smart meter data in their privacy statements. A privacy-friendly solution was in the interests of both businesses and consumers, he warned.

‘‘Loss of trust from deliberate or accidental disclosure is likely to impact strongly on retailers.’’

Power companies have said previously that information from smart meters was kept securely and only sent to third parties and then only when required by law, as with phone records.

Contact Energy has previously said it was not possible to monitor individual appliances.