Congressman Mike Kennedy introduces bill to ban the sale of data obtained by smart meters

Congressman Mike Kennedy introduces bill to ban the sale of data obtained by smart meters

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Representative Mike Kennedy (UT-03), and Representative Josh Riley (NY-19) introduced the Smart Meter Data Privacy Protection Act , bipartisan legislation to ban utility companies from selling Americans private data and crack down on the misuse of personal information collected through smart meters

These meters do far more than track energy use: they capture detailed, real-time information on household energy patterns, daily routines and habits.

The Smart Meter Data Privacy Protection Act mandates that utilities can only use customers' energy-usage data for core functions like billing, grid reliability, outages, and regulatory compliance. The legislation also prevents utility companies from selling or sharing customer data.
"We must be certain to protect Americans' personal privacy. Smart meters can reveal families' daily routines in granular detail, but no one should have to surrender their personal data just to keep the lights on," said Congressman Kennedy. "I am proud to join Rep. Josh Riley in this effort to protect Americans' right to privacy and make clear that their personal data should not be a commodity."

The bill also requires utilities to provide an annual report to the Federal Trade Commission explaining what data was collected, how it was used, and who it was shared with. Under this legislation, if a utility improperly profits from a customer’s data, it must pay that customer back through bill credits three times the revenue it earned from the misuse. This bill also empowers states to take action against utilities that violate these privacy protections.

“Nobody asked for smart meters. The utilities rolled them out anyway, and if you didn’t want one, they charged you extra just to opt out,” said Congressman Riley. “Now they’re raking in millions selling all the data the smart meters collect — when you turn the lights on, when you cook dinner, when you take a shower, even when you shut the TV off at night. Upstate New Yorkers are already paying the foreign-owned utility monopolies too damn much. They shouldn’t get to cash in on our private information, too.”

You can read the text of the Smart Meter Data Privacy Protection Act HERE .

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