A California judge has ruled that a decade-long surveillance program in Sacramento, involving the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and local law enforcement, violated state privacy laws. The program, which shared granular smart-meter data on 650,000 residents to detect cannabis grows, was found to have breached privacy protections. The court determined that the program did not meet the criteria of a traditional law enforcement investigation as it systematically scanned the data of all users without suspicion. The ruling, issued by the Sacramento County Superior Court, highlighted that the use of smart meter data to monitor electricity usage patterns without evidence of criminal activity was a breach of privacy. The court emphasized that such data disclosure must be based on evidence supporting a suspicion of a particular crime.
According to the court, SMUD and law enforcement had developed a relationship beyond that of utility provider and law enforcement. Multiple times a year, the police asked SMUD to search its entire database of 650,000 customers to identify people who used a large amount of monthly electricity. The data was analyzed to find residents with certain electricity