Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The taxman cometh, or rather his henchman, the field
assessor, to check, document and photograph the minute details outside
your home (and inside if you give him permission) all in the name of
re-evaluating the tax digest of real property (your home and garden). In last
week’s letter I mentioned the 4th Amendment that has its origins in England in
the indelibly understood phrase…“an Englishman’s home is his castle” (at least
until the queen returns).
Well not so much in America anymore. Take a moment to check
the property listing for your home on the Dawson County Tax Assessor’s website
- http://www.qpublic.net/ga/dawson/
(Search Records) - and you may be surprised to see that you have been one of
those selected to have extra photographs of your decks, docks, outbuildings,
barns and garages (including equipment and cars with identifying license tags)
along with views of how to access your property from adjoining Public Lands,
all posted (and downloadable) on this most public website. Invasion of
privacy and security risks immediately spring to mind, followed by how much
time and effort (=cost) went into uploading all these extra data? What next,
pictures of the inside of our homes taken through our windows by peeping field
assessors?
When did the policy of publishing just the front view of a
property, as seen from the road, change to publicly inventorying backyard
possessions and vistas from private patios and decks? In my opinion this is an
open invitation for homeowner abuse, offering tempting options to thieves to
take property so readily displayed in public, not to mention what the tax
assessors may choose to use their ever growing dossier on you for. Watch for
men with guns in bullet proof vests carrying yellow tape?
Thursday, May 17, 2012
When did we click
“Agree” to this Lack of Privacy and Security Policy?
If you are an Etowah Water and Sewer Association (EWSA)
customer you may have seen, or will soon see, a notice stuck to your mail box
informing you that this Water Utility is switching your water meter to a “smart
meter” under the guise of a directive of GA Senate Bill 370. (This legislation
did NOT mandate “smart meters” but that water utilities be able to account for
their water usage and losses). While these meters may seem like an efficient
way to detect leaks and conserve water they will also allow EWSA, their agents,
and any knowledgeable hacker to access detailed, minute by minute, data of an individual homeowner’s pattern of
water usage.
The data from each smart meter is transmitted (like a cell
phone conversation) via receiving antennae (3 in Dawson County) and forwarded
for collection by EWSA. Unlike conventional meters, which record amalgamated
water use for monthly or weekly readings, EWSA’s fix (estimated to cost around
$2M for approximately 5300 customers) will pinpoint not only low flow leaks but
also when you flush, when you take a bath vs. a shower, or
leave the faucet running when you brush your teeth, without any guarantee of the
privacy of this data. Although they may not be able to tell yet if it was a #1
or a #2 you did in the bathroom anyone seeing the minute by minute data will certainly
be able to deduce that no water use in a home for an extended period means that
the occupants may be away at work or on vacation. This information, in the
wrong hands, is not just a privacy issue but also a safety and security concern.
With over half the installation project already completed
EWSA have neither published on their website nor included in our water bills a privacy
or security policy statement regarding how these data, from inside our homes,
will be used. Who sees this information? How is it handled? Is it shared with
third parties or sold, or used to construct future tariff pricing? Will it be
used to enforce watering restrictions? Has the ability of hackers gaining
access to the transmissions been stymied? Does law enforcement need a warrant
to peek? While in GA we have a tradition of standing up for our First and
Second Amendment rights, when I last checked there was a Fourth Amendment that
deserves some attention too! (For those not familiar with this, it deals with searches
inside our homes).
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