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Smart Meter Paranoia: Could a Simple Toggle Switch or Software Fix Solve It? By Guest Editorial Feb 23, 2010 - 6:37:03 PM
The futuristic vision of the SmartGrid resembles an Orwellian existence complete with Big Brother peering through the metaphorical eyes of our electrical appliances, devices and vehicles. The possible consequences of unfettered access to our personal data concerning energy usage, coupled with the connection of electrical devices to intelligent networks, are a frightening prospect. In short, the future capabilities of the Smart Grid are nothing less than the ability to control and access information from anything that plugs into the electrical grid. This is essentially what makes the Smart Grid smart.
We may not be at that stage today, and it may take virtually decades to get to that point but, most assuredly, we will have those capabilities based upon today’s technology alone.
All of this sounds like an alarmist reaction to the natural course of technological advancement but, in reality, it is nothing more than the opportunity to better design the technologies we develop to be sensitive to social and cultural considerations. In this case, a compilation of a small set of insignificant design decisions made early in the visioning phase of architecting the Smart Grid could ensure the average individual the ability to control how much privacy they wish to enjoy.
As an example: Suppose design standards were developed to include a simple set of small toggle switches (or software) that have the ability to disable the external control of a device, the ability to disable reading of the device’s energy signature, and the ability to limit or disable access to personal data associated with it.
Then suppose we also had a design policy standard that the default position for all device switches, either hardware or software, was the “off” position, meaning the device is completely shut off from outside control or access. The combination of these two small design standards would have the powerful affect of doing two things:
1) Provide the “Opt In” privacy option to individuals who want total privacy
2) Provide economic and environmentally conscious individuals the ability to tailor the amount of privacy they give up
The real story here is not the limiting of functionality or privacy; it is the ability to intelligently design our emerging Smart Grid to be a resource to individuals and to avoid unintended consequences. The design of the Smart Grid will impact hundreds of millions of people, yet I would argue that we have done little to gather requirements from the average citizen about the fundamental basis for design.
Tim Kostyk is a member of Arizona State University’s Human and Social Dimensions of Science & Technology PhD Program. He is a TOGAF 9 Certified Enterprise Architect and trainer and sits on the IEEE Power and Engineering Society Smart Grid Planning Committee as well as participates in the IEEE Smart Grid p2030 Standards Workgroup. He can be e-mailed at Timothy.Kostyk@asu.edu
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