Paranoid much?

Oh for heaven's sake, people. Can we just get a bit of prospective on the "privacy" concept, please. The California PUC has proposed "strong privacy protections" regulations because Smart Meters transmit usage patterns to the utility company.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is upset about it.

"California's PG&E is currently in the process of installing "smart meters" that will collect detailed data of energy use —750 to 3000 data points per month per household—for every energy customer in the state. These meters are aimed at helping consumers monitor and control their energy usage, but the information that is collected can reveal much more about a household's daily activities: when people wake up, when they come home, when they go on vacation, and maybe even when they take a hot bath."

What bullshit. From the data points, they can tell my usage pattern. They cannot tell what I'm doing with the electricity. They don't know when I get up or take a bath. They don't know if I'm home or not. They just know my usage pattern.

If I could stop advertisers from sending me junk mail or throwing their adverts onto my driveway, I would. I can't. So, go ahead, utility company, gather my usage sell it to anyone who cares.

Go ahead, Google Maps. Take a upteen pictures of my house and put it on the Internet. Go ahead facebook, collect all my "personal" data and sell it to the highest bidder. Put all the targeted ads you want on my facebook page (I use adblock so I don't see them). Go ahead, Home Land Security. Collect all the data on me that you want. It's not the data you have but the actions you take that I'm interested in.

So, can we just tighten up the definition of privacy, please.

The notion of a right to privacy is another failing the Warren Court.