So...what happens if the utility companies hire Xe (formerly known as Blackwater) or other right wing-owned, professional para-military mercs to design and oversee security for information management and data security?  I'd want my local community to have input and a voting status in all manner of operations -- like members of rural electric cooperatives .  Who owns your personal data?  Who is to oversee how this data is to be used?  Who can view it?   How does your data fit within the corporate vision/mission? Is your data now part of legalized databases  actually newly authorized corporate revenue streams sold to the public as 'market innovation?' 

In the case of an emergency - or actually on any given day - do you want the decision about who controls your most personal information made by some CEO and a board of directors whose prime directive is to make a lot of money so they can buy members of Congress to approve 'free pass' legislation and access to the US Treasury.  Hell we Georgians will soon be paying Georgia Power for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle that will not be producing electricity for many years to come, if ever.  By law, Georgia Power can up your rates at anytime to pay for over-costs and your bill will not be going down until construction is complete.  Georgia Power receives no punishment is construction is delayed by years or never completed.  Vogtle Units 1 and 2 were initially projected to cost $330 million but had a final price tag of nearly $9 billion.  Amanda

What will talking power meters say about you?

Posted: Friday, October 9 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Would you sign up for a discount with your power company in exchange for surrendering control of your thermostat?  What if it means that, one day, your auto insurance company will know that you regularly arrive home on weekends at 2:15 a.m., just after the bars close?

Welcome to the complex world of the Smart Grid, which may very well pit environmental concerns against thorny privacy issues.  If you think such debates are purely philosophical, you're behind the times.

Maryland residents this month received fliers offering annual discounts of up to $100 in exchange for allowing their power company, Pepco, to occasionally shut off their air conditioning units during hot days, when demand is high. Pepco says consumers will hardly notice the change, and the two-way communication between utility and appliances will go a long way toward preventing brownouts.

Pepco's discount plan is among the first signs that the futuristic "Smart Grid" has already arrived. Up to three-fourths of the homes in the United States are expected to be placed on the "Smart Grid" in the next decade, collecting and storing data on the habits of their residents by the petabyte.   And while there's no reason to believe Pepco or other utilities will share the data with outside firms, some experts are already asking the question: Will saving the planet mean inviting Big Brother into the home? Or at least, as Commerce Secretary Gary Locke recently warned, will privacy concerns be the "Achilles' heel" of the Smart Grid?...

Rest of article here: 

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/10/would-you-sign-up-for-a-discount-with-your-power-company-in-exchange-for-surrendering-control-of-your-thermostat-what-if-it.html#posts