Sacramento Residents’ Smart Meter Data Surveillance Deemed illegal
A California court has halted a decade-long program where Sacramento law enforcement accessed detailed electrical usage data from residents without individualized suspicion. The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled the surveillance, conducted by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in coordination with police, violated a state privacy law protecting customer electricity data.
The case was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) representing petitioners the Asian American Liberation Network,Khurshid Khoja,and Alfonso nguyen. They argued the program, which involved analyzing granular smart meter data to identify potential cannabis cultivation, caused important privacy harms, including the potential for misidentification, unwanted police contact, and disproportionate impact on the Asian community.
The court distinguished the program from legitimate law enforcement investigations, which focus on specific crimes and suspects.Rather, the court found SMUD and police engaged in a “dragnet” surveillance, treating all 650,000 SMUD customers as potential suspects. SMUD regularly provided police with over 33,000 “tips” based on high electricity usage and specific consumption patterns identified through hourly data analysis.
The ruling emphasized that the program violated SMUD’s legal obligation to maintain the confidentiality of customer data. The court stated that requesting broad customer information ”in the hopes of identifying evidence…without any report…to suggest that such a crime may have occurred” does not constitute a valid examination.
Detailed electricity usage data can reveal sensitive personal information, including daily routines and habits.The court acknowledged the close working relationship developed between SMUD and law enforcement in running the program.
While the court rejected a claim that the program violated the California Constitution’s search and seizure clause,the EFF maintains that the core issue – SMUD’s search and provision of granular data to law enforcement at their request – remains a significant privacy concern.
The decision sets a precedent for public utilities across California, clarifying they cannot share customer electricity data with law enforcement without evidence supporting a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
The case was argued on behalf of the petitioners by the EFF and Monty Agarwal of the law firm Vallejo, Antolin, Agarwal, kanter LLP.
