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EU: SMART METERING WILL BE ABLE TO COLLECT A MASS OF PERSONAL DATA AND BEHAVIOUR

11 June 2012

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European Data Protection Supervisor: Smart meters: consumer profiling will track much more than energy consumption if not properly safeguarded, says the EDPS (Press release, pdf) and Full-text of Opinion (pdf):

"While the Europe-wide rollout of smart metering systems may bring significant benefits, it will also enable massive collection of personal data which can track what members of a household do within the privacy of their own homes, whether they are away on holiday or at work, if someone uses a specific medical device or a baby-monitor, how they like to spend their free time and so on. These patterns can be useful for analysing our energy use for energy conservation but together with data from other sources, the potential for extensive data mining is very significant. Patterns and profiles can be used for many other purposes, including marketing, advertising and price discrimination by third parties." [emphasis added]

Giovanni Buttarelli, Assistant EDPS, says: "the EDPS calls on the Commission to assess whether further legislative action is necessary at EU level to ensure adequate protection of personal data for the roll-out of smart metering systems an - in his Opinion - provides pragmatic recommendations for such legislative action. Some of these recommendations can already be implemented via an amendment to the Energy Efficiency Directive, which is currently before the Council and Parliament. These should at least include a mandatory requirement for controllers to conduct a data protection impact assessment and an obligation to notify personal data breaches."

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