Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information

Abstract

A new era of visible and sharable electricity information is emerging. Where eco-feedback is installed, households can now visualise many aspects of their energy consumption and share this information with others through Internet platforms such as social media. Despite providing users with many affordances, eco-feedback information can make public previously private actions from within the intimate setting of the family home. This paper represents a study focussing specifically on the privacy aspects of nascent ways for viewing and sharing this new stream of personal information. It explores the nuances of privacy related to eco-feedback both within and beyond the family home. While electricity consumption information may not be considered private itself, the household practices which eco-feedback systems makes visible may be private. We show that breaches of privacy can occur in unexpected ways and have the potential to cause distress. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how to realise the benefits of sharing energy consumption information whist effectively maintaining individuals' conceptions of adequate privacy.

Mining a MOOC to examine international views of the “Smart City”

“…The views expressed by our learners are closely related to those found in previous privacy research both within and beyond research in Smart Cities [2], [22], [27], highlighting the complexity of decision making when it comes to the disclosure of "private" information.…”

Privacy Concerns as a Barrier to Sharing Data About Energy Use: A Rapid Realist Review

“…People felt that sharing of data to third parties was a fact of life, even if they were not necessarily enthusiastic about it [31] or felt that it was largely out of their control. However, it is worth noting that participants in seven studies were selected for their prior knowledge of smart meters, or similar data collection technologies, in order to have an opinion about them [10,25,26,30,34,42]. As a result, people who are already comfortable with using technology (and privacy controls for them) are likely to be overrepresented in research about data sharing technologies.…”

“…are shared within households as well as to third parties. In households with multiple users, there may be many different privacy concerns and energy saving or cost saving priorities [34] and a model of the consent with the sole "bill payer" may not reflect the diversity of risk and benefits of sharing energy usage data within the household. One participant in a study of a smart home co-design [42] expressed concern over other members of the same household being able to access to her credit card details, and suggested voice recognition as an authentication that could allow for multiple users.…”

“…Detailed energy use data could reveal patterns of behavior that family members would wish to control or limit visibility of under typical circumstances, such as adult content TV viewing or who is (or isn't) doing the chores around the house [12]. Detailed and real-time energy use data could enable some family members to monitor and control the behaviors of other members of the household in ways they were not able to do before and may not be welcome by other members of the household [34].…”

“…One even called her one day saying 'Wow Kay, your power is going through the roof!'" [34] Such technologies that can reveal patterns of behavior, location or control over devices and will need to consider how such technologies can be used as "vectors of control". There was little direct evidence from the energy sector on the impact of energy data collection on coercive control in the home, although this was indicated in the disquiet of members of the household, aware that there could be a shift in power through information within the home.…”