Ireland’s electricity network agency has been told it risks encouraging “suspicions about surveillance” in refusing to release details of the data recorded by its smart meter network.
Privacy advocacy group Digital Rights Ireland has said a lack of transparency regarding the smart meter network will serve to increase distrust in the machines among the public after the ESB refused to release the data stored on an individual meter following a request to that effect by the Wicklow household in question.
A recent freedom of information request by a Co Wicklow resident, seeking details of all of the information uploaded by his smart meter to date, was refused by the ESB, citing the risk of breaching the “network and information systems which it uses in its operations”.
In refusing the request, the ESB said it had “identified that the release of unauthorised sensitive information... into the public domain, is a security risk”.
It said the relevant data list pertaining to the individual meter could “be used to establish the design and potential vulnerabilities of the meters, which in turn could allow bad actors to compromise individual meters and/or the entire smart metering system”.
The officer who refused the request added the release of such information could “create a cyber security risk by providing public access to sensitive security information and codes” which in turn “could facilitate the commission of a crime”.
A spokesperson for Digital Rights Ireland said: “Not being completely transparent about the operation of the meters only heightens suspicions about surveillance.
“If ESB Networks really need to collect this information, the least they can do is be transparent about what they are collecting and why. Families have a right to know what is going on."