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Privacy Concerns in Upcoming Residential and Commercial Demand-Response Systems
Mikhail Lisovich, Stephen Wicker

Citation
Mikhail Lisovich, Stephen Wicker. "Privacy Concerns in Upcoming Residential and Commercial Demand-Response Systems". 2008 Clemson University Power Systems Conference, Clemson University, March, 2008.

Abstract
We explore the privacy concerns arising from the collection of power consumption data in current and future demand-response systems. We claim that in a lax regulatory environment, the detailed household consumption data gathered by advanced metering projects can and will be repurposed by interested parties to reveal personally identifying information such as an individual's activities, preferences, and even beliefs. To develop this claim, we begin with an overview of demand-response technologies and their deployment trends, mentioning both the parties interested in the data and their motivations. We proceed to formalize the notion of privacy and list the types of personal information which can be estimated with current and upcoming monitoring technologies. To support our list, we conduct a small-scale monitoring experiment on a private residence. Our results show that personal information can be estimated with a high degree of accuracy, even with relatively unsophisticated hardware and algorithms. We discuss the implications of our results for future demand-response projects. Our paper concludes with guidelines for data-handling policies which ensure the protection of privacy.

Electronic downloads

Citation formats  
  • HTML
    Mikhail Lisovich, Stephen Wicker. <a
    href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/332.html"
    >Privacy Concerns in Upcoming Residential and Commercial
    Demand-Response Systems</a>, 2008 Clemson University
    Power Systems Conference, Clemson University, March, 2008.
  • Plain text
    Mikhail Lisovich, Stephen Wicker. "Privacy Concerns in
    Upcoming Residential and Commercial Demand-Response
    Systems". 2008 Clemson University Power Systems
    Conference, Clemson University, March, 2008.
  • BibTeX
    @inproceedings{LisovichWicker08_PrivacyConcernsInUpcomingResidentialCommercialDemandResponse,
        author = {Mikhail Lisovich and Stephen Wicker},
        title = {Privacy Concerns in Upcoming Residential and
                  Commercial Demand-Response Systems},
        booktitle = {2008 Clemson University Power Systems Conference},
        organization = {Clemson University},
        month = {March},
        year = {2008},
        abstract = {We explore the privacy concerns arising from the
                  collection of power consumption data in current
                  and future demand-response systems. We claim that
                  in a lax regulatory environment, the detailed
                  household consumption data gathered by advanced
                  metering projects can and will be repurposed by
                  interested parties to reveal personally
                  identifying information such as an individual's
                  activities, preferences, and even beliefs. To
                  develop this claim, we begin with an overview of
                  demand-response technologies and their deployment
                  trends, mentioning both the parties interested in
                  the data and their motivations. We proceed to
                  formalize the notion of privacy and list the types
                  of personal information which can be estimated
                  with current and upcoming monitoring technologies.
                  To support our list, we conduct a small-scale
                  monitoring experiment on a private residence. Our
                  results show that personal information can be
                  estimated with a high degree of accuracy, even
                  with relatively unsophisticated hardware and
                  algorithms. We discuss the implications of our
                  results for future demand-response projects. Our
                  paper concludes with guidelines for data-handling
                  policies which ensure the protection of privacy.},
        URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/332.html}
    }
    

Posted by Mikhail Lisovich on 31 Mar 2008.
Groups: trust
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