Smart Meters

I was once talking to an RCMP woman, and she was telling me that when they fly over Squamish, BC, 1 house out of 4 is a potential grow op... haha if they start busting everybody suspected of using power to grow marij through the smart meter, far too many people would get busted and it just won't happen this way, they are gonna go more like... allright lets legalise it!!! haha here in Canada anyway.... Unless you have a full fkin warehouse grow op, keep it to yourself and I cant see you getting busted. My take on it.

In states where mmj is legal like California you don't have much to worry about.
Legally I can grow 24 mature plants and depending on the setup, that could utilize 1000-4000 watts or more.
I just don't see them starting an investigation on a hunch that it may or may not be legal.

There are so many people growing for personal use now that most law enforcement lack the resources to investigate it.
I think LE agencies are left with realization that they can only focus on the big commercial growers and the utility thieves now.

just my 02

Typically the police will ask the eletricity company to reveal the usage should there be a tip off or reason to believe growing is taking place, and the police learn through them doing the asking, not the other way around, the electricity copany likes you using lots of power, it means they are making lots of money to buy a fast car or a boat or a new house. They are a for-profit business, it is not in their interest to actively hamper their profits. they don't generally care so long as you are paying.

tip top toker said:

They wanted to install a smart meter in my house. I told them to go away because it was none of their business. They do not own my meter, when i change supplier they do not install a new meter, the new company uses the old one. Until a law is passed making smart meters mandatory, then there is nothing they can do but plead to change it out for a smart meter. You simply say sorry i'm not interested. If there is already a smart meter installed, then you tell the supplier to change it for a regular one or you will give your oney to a supplier who will, understanding your usage is not important enough to them to lose the customer, they are a business, trying to make profit.

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I've already read in many areas they are mandatory.......no smart meter, no electricity. I know that's the case in my state although they are a couple of years away from completing the entire state installation. Also, many of the power company's offer rewards as an incentive to turn people in if they find something questionable- paid by law enforcement. I think we are a few years away from major police issues, unless there is already some suspicion on the house- but big government wants to control your life, and your electricity usage, and your healthcare, etc., etc.

SSHZ said:

You guys better wise up about smart meters.......... these are a serious threat to all growers:


"Are smart meters real-time surveillance spies?

Smart meters provide highly detailed energy-use data that law enforcement can use to bust indoor pot farmers. And that's only the tip of potential smart meter surveillance.


Smart meters provide highly detailed energy-use data. The info can be used by police to find and to bust indoor pot farms, by insurance companies to determine health care premiums, and by criminals to determine if you own high-dollar appliances and when is the best time to steal them. And that's only the tip of the potential privacy invasion iceberg.
In central Ohio, police file at least 60 subpoenas each month for energy-use records of people suspected in indoor marijuana growing operations, reported the Columbus Dispatch. Most of the houses with indoor pot growing operations are reportedly in quiet neighborhoods without much traffic. DEA agent Anthony Marotta said the subpoena is only one tool used to catch "grow house" operators. Police get a tip about suspicious activity, but if undercover officers don't discover anything illegal during a stake out, then utility consumption records can be sought. "How else can I get an indicator to get probable cause if I can't see anything?" Marotta said to reporter Dean Narciso.
High electricity usage does not always indicate a pot growing operation. DEA agent Marotta told the Columbus Dispatch of a federal investigation that surprised drug detectives. "We thought it was a major grow operation ... but this guy had some kind of business involving computers. I don't know how many computer servers we found in his home."
Using the smart grid for surveillance to catch marijuana growing operations is far from a new concept.NeverGetBusted documented "fishing for pot" by "trolling for data" back in 2006. In 2007, the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog reported on Texas warrantless surveillance programs in which Austin Energy provided Austin Police with customer usage information to find indoor pot farms.
But according to the Baltimore Sun, pot growers use pirated electricity by tapping and routing lines, unmetered, to their grow rooms. Smart meters can change that by identifying the undetected illegal power lines. Software will detect anomalies and electricity theft. British Columbia Hydro's smart-meter expert Fiona Taylor told the Vancouver Sun, "This system will allow us to follow the flow of electricity from point to point. We will be able to see at a macro level what is happening." By cutting back on the 3% of illegal electricity used by pot growers, BC Hydro expects smart meters to pay for themselves in under 10 years.
In comments via several online articles about using the smart grid to target indoor marijuana gardens, some people say that every minute a police department "wastes" by reading electricity consumption could have been used to fight "real" crime like murder.
The U.S. Department of Energy warned [PDF] that smart grid technology can provide a highly detailed household profile of energy consumption and said policies are needed to restrict utilities from sharing consumer usage data with third parties. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined Potential Privacy Impacts that Arise from the Collection and Use of Smart Grid Data [PDF].
From reading it, a person might wonder if smart meters will be real-time surveillance spies. It suggests that insurance companies might use the smart meter data to determine health care premiums, such as if there is high usage at night which would indicate sleep behavior problems. Besides looking to bust pot farmers, law enforcement might use the data as "real-time surveillance to determine if residents are present and current activities inside the home." The press might wish to see the smart meter data of celebrities. Criminals may want to see the data to determine the best time for a burglary and what high dollar appliances you might have to steal. Marketers might want the data for profiling and targeting advertisements. Creditors might want the data to determine if behavior indicates creditworthiness.
It is little wonder that privacy advocates call for robust privacy policies since the captured smart meter data can reveal an intimate and highly detailed look into people's lives. Security experts also call to plug potential smart grid security risks. Lockheed Martin general manager of Energy and Cyber Services said the smart grid could include as many as 440 million new hackable points by the end of 2015, reported Computerworld.
There is a great deal of good that smart grid technology can do, but it holds many potential privacy and security problems. Without strong privacy policies, smart meters could easily become be real-time surveillance spies."

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.......INTERESTING INFO.....MAKES ME MORE PARINIOD THO!...kabump!

Bump

i don't understand why so many people are so paranoid about this shit. in todays society everything we have and do is about technology ,why would this be any diffrent .i got a little clue for there is something up in space that can see you taking a crap in your house ,if you pay your bill on time the power company only care about lining there pocket ,feel me .don't stress yourself out about it ,if they want you they will get you or fabricate it to get you .your gonna get real old worrying about this stuff ,look back when we had land lines and when the first mobile phone came out ,same thing there everyone thought they are gonna spy on you and yes they can again technology .moral of the story they will always try to make things better and we will always think there spying .don't worry about all of it and just get stoned until they catch you ,if they do live on there dime