Debunked: Mainstream media admits smart meters are spying devices

[Mick West]

David Icke, the well-known British conspiracy theorist, tweeted today (March 2 2014):
"Mainstream media admits smart meters are spying devices"

The link takes you to an article on his site:
http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/mainstream-media-admits-smart-meters-are-spying-devices/

‘For years researchers and activists have been warning about the health and privacy dangers involved with smart meters. As usual, the mainstream media ridiculed these warnings and insisted that smart meters were harmless. However, now it is becoming common knowledge that these smart meters can be used to spy on innocent people, and even the mainstream media is starting to catching on.

Shockingly, news organizations like NBC are even picking this story up, in a recent article for NBC News, Matt Liebowitz writes:

Researchers examining the privacy implications of smart-meter technology found that one German provider’s devices contained vulnerabilities that allowed them to snoop on unencrypted data to determine whether or not the homeowners were home.​

Content from external source

That is just a paraphrasing of a story from Feb 24 2014:
http://intellihub.com/mainstream-media-admits-smart-meters-spying-devices/

Which links to the actual NBC story: from Jan 10th 2012, over two years ago - not exactly a "Recent article".
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45946984/...s-can-be-used-spy-private-homes/#.UwpdSPldUtF

Carluccio and Brinkhaus presented their research in a presentation titled " Smart Hacking for Privacy" at the Chaos Computing Congress in Berlin on Dec. 30.

Flaws in Discovergy's Web interface also enabled the researchers to send back rigged meter readings to the company, and to tap into the company's servers and obtain a complete record of all the information collected by a home's smart meter.

Content from external source

Which in turn is based up on talk given at the Chaos Computing Congress in Berlin on Dec. 30, 2011

Nowhere in this does anyone "admit" that smart meters are spying devices. What is discussed is a flaw in one German companies Smart Meter that allows people to hack into it and snoop on the communications. It's basically like using a web site (such as your bank) that you thought was secure, and then finding out that it's not actually secure.

The exploits shown all depend on this flaw, which has since been fixed. Of course there's nothing to prove that similar snooping cannot be done further down the line (as we've seen with the NSA's interception of telephone metadata). However this is a information that is pretty much all being broadcast anyway. Your cell phone knows your location and who you call, your ISP knows what web sites you visit, Google knows what's in your Gmail, your cable company known what movies you watch, your credit card company knows what you buy. These are all far more significant things than your energy usage.

 

[jaydeehess]

There's not much one could do with the info from a water or electric usage smart meter. Yes, you could determine, within a margin of error, if anyone is at home. You might also be able to cause some mischief by altering the report of how much has been used and run their bill up, or conversly change your own billing to a lesser amount.

 

[Soulfly]

Power companies will buy power back from customers that have supplemental ways of generating electricity and they have extra to sell. Could someone hack the meter to make it appear as if they are using no power or make it appear that power is being sent back and thus fraud the power company?

 

[jaydeehess]

Power companies will buy power back from customers that have supplemental ways of generating electricity and they have extra to sell. Could someone hack the meter to make it appear as if they are using no power or make it appear that power is being sent back and thus fraud the power company?

That's a different meter than the ones in the article. Generating and selling power back to the utility requires specialized equipment. Its not as easy as simply tieing in.
There have been cases where power goes out in a neighbourhood and a customer with his own gas generator simply plugs the genset output into his wall outlet to supply power to his house. there are two problems with this.
- First, it also is powering the lines on the street and could injure power company workers trying to repair a line that is supposed to have no power on it.
- Second, when street power does come back on it will not be kind to the generator. In fact it could be quite a spectacle as the generator catches fire and possibly jumps accross the room.

 

[Libertarian]

The logic of this thread seems to imply that because lots of things spy on us, another something that spies on us is not a big deal. But that doesn't mean they don't. If you compare the analog meter and the smart meter it is very obvious that the smart meter can indeed be used to spy on you where the analog meter can not.

Mick not caring that they can spy on people is wholly insufficient to establish non spying. This thread confirms that they can and have spied. And yet it is marked "debunked". This is highly misleading.

BTW I own a Nest Thermostat and turned off the WIFI on it when Google bought Nest because Google knows where I live...so them also knowing when I'm not home is unacceptable. The same goes for my power company.

The smart meter can easily watch when I'm home and when I'm not based on what is turned in in the home and when. This is much more than my analog meter tells the power company about me. Thus it is a spy device, whether it is currently used as one or not.

This debunk is bunk.

 

[Ross Marsden]

(snip)
This debunk is bunk.

You misunderstand the thread.
The claim is that "Mainstream media admits smart meters are spying devices".
That has been debunked - mainstream media admits nothing of the sort.

That smart meters are spying devices is a completely different claim.

 

[WeedWhacker]

"ParanoiaLand"

A new possible section in the next Disney amusement park.

Attractions to include:

"Alex Jones' ScaryImaginarim" and "The Chemtrail Experience".

 

[NoParty]

You misunderstand the thread.
The claim is that "Mainstream media admits smart meters are spying devices".
That has been debunked - mainstream media admits nothing of the sort.

That smart meters are spying devices is a completely different claim.

I believe the rule is:
Constantly attack the mainstream media, say they're corrupt, say they're despicable,
lying weasels who do nothing but cover up the numerous conspiracies going on all around us…

Unless they print or air something in line with your theories, in which case their credibility is now flawless.

 

[Soulfly]

You misunderstand the thread.
The claim is that "Mainstream media admits smart meters are spying devices".
That has been debunked - mainstream media admits nothing of the sort.

That smart meters are spying devices is a completely different claim.

Even if that was what the OP was about, his hyperbolic opinion alone wouldn't re-bunk it.

Or is it de-debunk?

 

[WeedWhacker]

Unless they print or air something in line with your theories, in which case their credibility is now flawless.

AND....cue the Fox "news" fans in 3 -- 2 --......