Victory! Court Ends Dragnet Electricity Surveillance Program . . . A California judge ordered the end of a dragnet law enforcement program that surveilled the electrical smart meter data of thousands of Sacramento residents The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled that the surveillance program run by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and police violated a state privacy statute, which bars the disclosure of residents’ electrical usage data
Sacramento Electricity Surveillance Program Ends – Victory! What: A court-ordered end to a surveillance program using smart meter data Where: Sacramento County, California When: Ruling issued November 14, 2024, ending a program active for over a decade Why it matters: Protects resident privacy and sets a precedent for utility data disclosure
California Court Rules SMUD Illegally Shared Customer Utility . . . A Landmark Decision Against Mass Surveillance Through Smart Meters Sacramento, CA — In a significant victory for digital privacy rights, a California court has ruled that Sacramento's public utility broke the law by conducting a decade-long mass surveillance operation, handing over smart meter data from more than 33,000 homes to
More on EFF lawsuit: When Smart Meters turn into spy tools California’s robust privacy protections are facing a critical test as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and community advocates press forward with a lawsuit to dismantle what they describe as an illegal and biased surveillance operation run by Sacramento’s public electric utility
Sacramento utility provider under fire for using SMART METERS . . . The EFF sued Sacramento's public utility (SMUD) for a decade-long unconstitutional surveillance program, using smart meter data to flag over 33,000 households as "suspicious" without warrants or individualized suspicion