In Sacramento, California, two residents, Alfonso Nguyen and Brian Decker, faced alarming police actions linked to accusations of illegal cannabis growing based on their electricity usage. The Electronic Frontier Foundation highlighted that over 33,000 residents are flagged for investigation by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) due to high electricity consumption patterns. SMUD monitors customer usage in 15-minute increments, and when suspicious patterns emerge, they alert the Sheriff's department. The EFF contends that this practice violates privacy rights, seeking a court order to prevent warrantless disclosures that intrude on residential privacy.
SMUD's disclosures invade the privacy of customers' homes. The whole exercise is the digital equivalent of a door-to-door search of an entire city. The home lies at the 'core' of constitutional protections.
According to a motion the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed in Sacramento Superior Court, Nguyen and Decker are only two of more than 33,000 Sacramento-area people flagged by SMUD.
Deputies from the Sacramento department previously forced Brian Decker to walk backward out of his home in his underwear, alleging he was under suspicion of illegal cannabis growing.
The EFF stated that SMUD analyzes electricity usage in painstakingly detailed increments of every 15 minutes, notifying Sheriff's investigators when identifying suspicious patterns.
Collection
[
|
...
]