The British government will collect energy use data from smart meters – and link it to your name, address, date of birth, etc. It is all part of its fuel subsidy scheme. Are you concerned?
BY:
Antonio Greco
Cyber/Data Science Analyst
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
18 October 2022 (London, UK) -The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy updated its data collection page on the 1st of October. But it’s only just been noticed after Jeremy Hunt shredded Liz Truss’s economic plans, including slashing the energy price freeze which the prime minister had repeatedly championed. The media started to do some investigating and came across the update. You can read the whole update by clicking here.
That your personal data will be connected to the smart meter and collected by the government may be the biggest invasion of privacy we’ve ever seen by a British government – not even the UK COVID app required all of this information.
At the end of June there were 29.5m smart meters in use in homes and small businesses, or just over half of all the meters installed. I’d predict uptake will stall unless really good reasons for this intrusion can be given.
The key sections of the update:
We will collect and process the following personal data, related to each electricity and gas meter in Great Britain:
• Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN) – electricity meter number
• Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN)
• postcode
• electricity consumption
• data about each meter (for example profile class, energisation status)
• data about how the meter point is billed (for example billing cycle, payment type)
• energy tariff data
• personal data including; name, date of birth, address, communication data, email address
We are processing the data to:
• enable BEIS to monitor the progress and operational delivery of the Energy Price Guarantee scheme (EPG) (this includes monitoring the reach of the scheme across regions and vulnerable groups)
• conduct financial checks on EPG payments including for assurance and the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences including fraud
• allow BEIS to evaluate the scheme to understand its impact and to inform future government policy.
