TO: Agent for Service @ Georgia Power, Southern Company President: Paul Bowers
Vice President: Ann Daiss
805 Ralph David Abernathy B
Atlanta, GA 30310
Place the date here
Re: Place your address here
NOTICE OF NO CONSENT TO TRESPASS AND SURVEILLANCE,
NOTICE OF LIABILITY
Sent By Certified Mail
Dear Georgia Power and Southern Company officials , agents, officers, employees, contractors and interested parties:
Be advised, you and all other parties are hereby denied consent for installation and use of any and all “Smart Meter” digital electric meters, or any variation of a “smart” meter, either with its transmitter turned on or off, or any other potential surveillance and/or activity monitoring device, or devices, at the above property. Installation and use of any potential surveillance and/or activity monitoring device that can possibly send and receive communications technology is hereby refused and prohibited.
Informed consent is legally required for installation of any potential surveillance device and any device that will or could, if programmed or moderated in a certain way, collect and/or transmit private and personal data to undisclosed and unauthorized parties for undisclosed and/or unauthorized purposes. Authorization for sharing of personal and/or private information may only be given by the originator and subject of that information. That authorization is hereby denied and refused with regard to the above property and all its occupants. “Smart Meters” and any variation of a “smart” meter violate the law and cause endangerment to residents by the following factors:
1. They can, if modified or programmed in a certain way, individually identify electrical devices inside the home and/or record when they are operated, causing invasion of privacy.
2. They can, if modified or programmed in a certain way, monitor household activity and/or occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
3. They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and/or unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and/or occupancy, and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
4. Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are or can be collected, recorded and/or stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data by those whose activities were recorded.
5. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
6. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of, criminals, blackmailers, corrupt law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and/or other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
7. “Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent and/or knowledge of those people who are monitored. They violate Georgia law specifically: TITLE 16. CRIMES AND OFFENSES CHAPTER 11. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER AND SAFETY ARTICLE 3. INVASIONS OF PRIVACY PART 1. WIRETAPPING, EAVESDROPPING, SURVEILLANCE, AND RELATED OFFENSES O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 (2011) § 16-11-62. Eavesdropping, surveillance, or intercepting communication which invades privacy of another; divulging private message It shall be unlawful for: (1) Any person in a clandestine manner intentionally to overhear, transmit, or record or attempt to overhear, transmit, or record the private conversation of another which shall originate in any private place; (2) Any person, through the use of any device, without the consent of all persons observed, to observe, photograph, or record the activities of another which occur in any private place and out of public view…(3) Any person to go on or about the premises of another or any private place, except as otherwise provided by law, for the purpose of invading the privacy of others by eavesdropping upon their conversations or secretly observing their activities; (4) Any person intentionally and secretly to intercept by the use of any device, instrument, or apparatus the contents of a message sent by telephone, telegraph, letter, or by any other means of private communication; (5) Any person to divulge to any unauthorized person or authority the content or substance of any private message intercepted lawfully in the manner provided for in Code Section 16-11-65; (6) Any person to sell, give, or distribute, without legal authority, to any person or entity any photograph, videotape, or record, or copies thereof, of the activities of another which occur in any private place and out of public view without the consent of all persons observed; or (7) Any person to commit any other acts of a nature similar to those set out in paragraphs (1) through (6) of this Code section which invade the privacy of another. HISTORY: Ga. L. 1967, p. 844,
§ 1; Code 1933, § 26-3001, enacted by Ga. L. 1968,
p. 1249,§ 1;
Ga. L. 1976, p. 1100,
§ 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 149,
§ 16; Ga. L. 2000, p. 491,
§ 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 875, § 2.
8. It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and/or distant parties to determine medical conditions, personal activities, and/or physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and/or personal information and/or habits of the occupants.
9. Your company has not adequately disclosed the particular recording and transmission capabilities of the smart meter, or the extent of the data that will be recorded, stored and/or shared, or the purposes to which the data will and will not be put.
10. Electromagnetic and Radio Frequency energy contamination from smart meters exceeds allowable safe and healthful limits for domestic environments as determined by the EPA and other scientific programs. In addition, in many instances, power companies have been installing “smart” meters in violation of the following FCC guidelines, which puts the occupants of a dwelling at risk:
“Class II permissive change filing. Output power listed is conducted. Limited single module approval requires professional installation. The antenna(s) used for this transmitter must be installed to provide a separation distance of at least 20 cm from all persons and must not be collocated or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter except FHSS radio as documented in this filing. End users and installers must be provided with antenna installation and transmitter operating conditions for satisfying FR exposure compliance.”
Utilities are contracting with companies to install their ‘smart’ meters. These companies can hire temporary workers with little to no electrical or professional expertise, according to previous employees who blew the whistle on dangerous practices. Faulty installations are suspected in several cases where ‘smart’ meters caused fires and explosions. These are NOT professional installations.
The FCC requires that all persons be kept at least 20cm from the smart meter. Yet the utilities that oversee "smart" meter installations fail to erect any safety enclosure, or post any notices whatsoever warning people to keep their distance.
The utilities claim that people are going to be far from the meter - but what about children playing around the side of homes or apartment buildings? I have seen this personally, right across the street. This boy is playing football with his friends, not even knowing the danger they are in, since children are much more likely to get cancer from the radiation spewing, day and night, out of "smart" meters. I do not want my family to be in similar danger.
11. Smart meters can be hacked and will be hacked. The small CPU in these meters cannot protect itself as well as a home PC can, and home PCs are well known for being compromised. By deploying these in the millions with the same exact software and hardware, they become a huge target and will endanger the community if an attacker can switch the power on and/or off from remote in mass. This makes these “Smart Meters” dangerous and a liability to the ratepayers who would have to ultimately pay for any damage.
12. Smart meters are not protected from EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) attacks, large EMPs or localized EMPs as simple as a kid with a battery and a coil.
13. Disabling the receiver will not prevent other forms of “hacks”. For example a malicious attacker could confuse the internal CPU, reset it, change random memory locations, change the KWH reading, force a power disconnect, or completely disable a smart meter with a simple coil of wire and a small battery. This can’t happen with a mechanical meter. It is well known that a wide EMP can take out car computers; smart meters will now make that possible on the city wide electric infrastructure.
14. A thief or burglar could utilize the same EMP or hacking methods to turn off the house power even if the electrical switch box is locked.
15. Encryption of data is irrelevant due to well known “Tempest” attacks, where an attacker monitors internal electrical switching signals of a CPU or other internal components from a distance. Governments have developed standards covering this. Compromising emanations are defined as unintentional intelligence-bearing signals which, if intercepted and analyzed, may disclose the information transmitted, received, handled, or otherwise processed by any information-processing equipment, like in Smart Meters. This would violate customers’ privacy and any privacy policy the power company has at this time.
16. Turning off the RF transmitter is irrelevant due to the well-known “Tempest” attacks; the (radiofrequency radiation) RF wireless transmitter is not needed in these attacks and disabling the RF transmitter completely negates any advantages of these Smart Meters or their costs anyway.
17. Data about an occupant’s daily habits and activities can be, if smart meter digital electric meter is programmed and/or modified in a certain way, collected, recorded and/or stored in permanent databases which can be accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and/or share that private data by those whose activities were recorded. This can be done by cyber-attacks and/or disgruntled employees and has been done before where the attacked company may not know of the intrusion for months ("'We'll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher,'"says ex-CIA chief).
18. The power company has not adequately disclosed the encryption or security methods to the public. The source code to any data encryption must be open source and peer reviewed by the security community at large in order to be as secure as is currently possible. Security by obscurity is no security at all.
19. Previously it was “fair” that the power company had to go to a lot of trouble to adjust the mechanical meter to read more than it should since they had to come out to do it manually. People can’t modify the mechanical meter because it’s locked up; the power company probably won’t do it because it’s just too costly, and so that was “fair enough.” Now with the smart meters they can change it anytime they wish by remote and with little risk that the customer will know. With possible modification of computer code or measurement values / ratios from remote, who will overlook them? Who will ever know? This is an unfair practice and a liability to the ratepayers.
20. The power company has misled the public and the Public Service Commission by leaving out publicly available facts and information regarding smart meters. There are many downsides to this new technology that the power company has not presented to the general public or the Public Service Commission. Information is slanted and doesn’t address the negative issues fully.
21. Smart meter installation is not mandatory. The Public Service Commission only gave permission to install the meters. There is no forced mandate. The Georgia Public Service Commission has no such delegated authority from the People to make a forced mandate. If they did make a forced mandate, it’s clearly null and void on its face.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 really only covers Federal areas within the limited jurisdiction of the constitutionally limited United States Government. Even if it did apply, it also only mandates that a power company “offer” smart meters, aka “time-based meters,” to the public, upon customer request. Any suggestion by the power company to customers that smart meters are mandatory is a false statement, fraudulent, and false commercial speech which is punishable by law and also opens the power company to liability via lawsuit. To follow the law, customers would only “opt in,” although some states are now “allowing” customers to opt out, and not get a “smart” meter at all.
22. The power company has no delegated authority from the People to install a security risking, privacy invading, health threatening, hackable, unfair billing, or wide power grid security threatening device on anyone’s property.
23. Smart meters by default are not programmed to “run backwards,” like the current mechanical meters do now. This makes it more difficult for people to go “green” with solar panels or wind turbines using a low cost Grid Tie Inverter. The PSC has shown the intent over and over of encouraging the public to go “green,” the power company’s website and public disclosures show intent in this direction. The PSC allows the power company to charge an extra fee for “green projects”. Smart meters go against the PSC’s intent and the public interest by making it more difficult for people to install small solar or “green power” installations and gain KWH “credits” in power that they can use at a later time.
24. It is well known to electronic and computer engineers that a high voltage spike, such as a nearby lightning strike, or EMP can change memory bits in normal memory or EEPROM memory (Electronically Programmable Memory that is non-volatile) by adding extra electrons to the small memory cells. This can change internal smart meter settings like the KWH calibration data or other settings that may change the rate of power charged without the customer or power company ever knowing about it. This can’t happen with a mechanical meter.
25. Installation of a smart meter will lower this property’s value due to all the stated issues and controversy. This could subject ALL the ratepayers to higher rates due to lawsuit claims for value lost. The power company has no delegated authority from the People to use its easement or install equipment in a way that will lower property values or make a property less desirable to a buyer.
I demand an immediate stop to the installation of all Smart Meters until all issues are resolved, that Smart Meters be removed at customers request with no extra charge, an opt-in only for customers who are properly and fully informed and that must have this technology for their own specific need. This is in the public’s best interest.
I demand an immediate investigation into these issues by the Georgia Public Service Commission.
I demand that the Georgia Public Service Commission immediately order the power companies to fully inform all customers of ALL the known facts, including complaints and downsides of this technology within 30 days.
I reserve the right to amend this notice and complaint at any time, this is not a complete list of concerns since this technology is new and new information is being found every day. Concerns listed here are not in any particular order.
I forbid, refuse, and deny consent of any installation and/or use of any monitoring, eavesdropping, and/or surveillance devices, or any devices that canmonitor, or be programmed or modified to monitor, eavesdrop, and/or surveil, on my property, my place of residence and/or my place of occupancy. That applies to and includes “Smart Meters” and/or surveillance and activity monitoring devices of any and all kinds. Any attempt to install any such device directed at me, other occupants, my property or residence will constitute trespass, stalking, wiretapping and unlawful surveillance and endangerment of health and safety, all prohibited and punishable by law through criminal and civil complaints. All persons, government agencies and private organizations responsible for installing and/oror operating monitoring devices directed at or recording my activities, which I have not specifically authorized in writing, will be fully liable for any violations, intrusions, harm and/or negative consequences caused or made possible by those devices whether those negative consequences are justified by “law” or not.
This is legal notice. After this delivery the liabilities listed above may not be denied or avoided by parties named and implied in this notice. Civil Servant immunities and protections do not apply to the installation of “smart meters” and/or smart meter digital electric meters and/or any type of “smart meter” device, due to the criminal violations they represent.
Notice to principal is notice to agent and notice to agent is notice to principal. All rights reserved.
Signed: ___________________________________________
Your name and address
Signed: ___________________________________________
Your name and address (if co-owner)
My first letter is going to Ronnie Noble. He is the head of the “smart” meter program at Georgia Power, so I figure he’s the most important one to get it to. I’m also mailing all others listed here, but that is just my personal choice – I’m not suggesting anyone else has to mail all these people, certified mail. I just don’t want anyone to be able to say they weren’t informed as to the dangers “smart” meters pose, all day, every day, to their customers.
Ronnie Noble
Smart Meter Program, Georgia Power
755 Jefferson Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318-5231
Paul Bowers
President, Georgia Power
c/o Executive Customer Relations
P. O. Box 4545, BIN # 10105
Atlanta, GA 30308
Ann Daiss
Vice President, Georgia Power
c/o Executive Customer Relations
P. O. Box 4545, BIN # 10105
Atlanta, GA 30308
****************************
Extra credit:
Thomas Fanning,
President, Southern Company
241 Ralph McGill Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30308
Anthony L. Wilson
Exec. VP of Cust. Svc. & Operations
Georgia Power
241 Ralph McGill Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30308
