3 ms·

I would think it would be a bit of a security hole to have anyone read your meter. You'd easily be able to determine who is on vacation for instance. I'm guessi

I would think it would be a bit of a security hole to have anyone read your meter. You'd easily be able to determine who is on vacation for instance. I'm guessing you might also be able to deduce a lot of information such as bedtimes, when you are doing laundry, when you leave for work, etc.

dawnerd 9y ago
I feel like that'd be a lot more work than just watching their house for activity.
- colordrops 9y ago
  It's a different set of criminals and crimes, and some of it is organized.
- manmal 9y ago
  You could just build a device with GSM module, a battery, and above mentioned components, and hide it somewhere near the house. Voila, 24/7 observation from the comfort of your home. And the data is easily analyzable/mineable, not like a video feed you have to view on fast-forward.
- masklinn 9y ago
  Sure but for theft it's much more useful to have information about an entire neighbourhood at once, there's a much larger ROI to casing dozens or hundreds of homes at once than to casing each one individually. You can have "small hands" doing the initial survey (e.g. triangulate signal strengths to meter locations), automate the surveillance/pattern checking, and call in more professional break-in teams when you have high confidence.
ascorbic 9y ago
Considering the fact that it took him three hours to identify his own house, when he could see the current reading, I'd say that's not much of a problem.
- garmaine 9y ago
  Because it took him that long in his first try doesn’t mean that holds true of everyone.
  - ascorbic 9y ago
    There's no way to tie the signal to a specific house without the serial number or a reading.
    - cjrp 9y ago
      Monitor the usage and look for a change? E.g. I see the person come home and turn on their lights, whichever meter shows an increase at that time is theirs.
      - ascorbic 9y ago
        If you're doing that, why bother with the meter at all?
    - garmaine 9y ago
      RF triangulation at the meter box.
eoin_murphy 9y ago
It is. In Germany at least all communications must be encrypted. And often multiple meters will communicate via one gateway. Though, if someone has the time and technical ability to implement this kind of surveillance then there are probably easier ways to get better info than inferring activity from energy readings.
- masklinn 9y ago
  > Though, if someone has the time and technical ability to implement this kind of surveillance then there are probably easier ways to get better info than inferring activity from energy readings. I don't know, the original mapping probably isn't the most difficult thing in the world, and then you can just passively (programmatically) wait for oddities in consumption patterns against an entire neighbourhood.

dawnerd 9y ago

I feel like that'd be a lot more work than just watching their house for activity.

colordrops 9y ago
It's a different set of criminals and crimes, and some of it is organized.
manmal 9y ago
You could just build a device with GSM module, a battery, and above mentioned components, and hide it somewhere near the house. Voila, 24/7 observation from the comfort of your home. And the data is easily analyzable/mineable, not like a video feed you have to view on fast-forward.
masklinn 9y ago
Sure but for theft it's much more useful to have information about an entire neighbourhood at once, there's a much larger ROI to casing dozens or hundreds of homes at once than to casing each one individually. You can have "small hands" doing the initial survey (e.g. triangulate signal strengths to meter locations), automate the surveillance/pattern checking, and call in more professional break-in teams when you have high confidence.

ascorbic 9y ago

Considering the fact that it took him three hours to identify his own house, when he could see the current reading, I'd say that's not much of a problem.

garmaine 9y ago
Because it took him that long in his first try doesn’t mean that holds true of everyone.
- ascorbic 9y ago
  There's no way to tie the signal to a specific house without the serial number or a reading.
  - cjrp 9y ago
    Monitor the usage and look for a change? E.g. I see the person come home and turn on their lights, whichever meter shows an increase at that time is theirs.
    - ascorbic 9y ago
      If you're doing that, why bother with the meter at all?
  - garmaine 9y ago
    RF triangulation at the meter box.

eoin_murphy 9y ago

It is. In Germany at least all communications must be encrypted. And often multiple meters will communicate via one gateway. Though, if someone has the time and technical ability to implement this kind of surveillance then there are probably easier ways to get better info than inferring activity from energy readings.

masklinn 9y ago
> Though, if someone has the time and technical ability to implement this kind of surveillance then there are probably easier ways to get better info than inferring activity from energy readings. I don't know, the original mapping probably isn't the most difficult thing in the world, and then you can just passively (programmatically) wait for oddities in consumption patterns against an entire neighbourhood.