Smart Meters - Public Service Commission

employee working on the electrical pole, and a box sitting nearby that said
“Smart Meter”.
I told the guy that I didn't want the new meter installed, and he replied that it
was too late, he had already replaced the old meter. I told him to take it out,
and when he said he couldn't, I went into the house to make a phone call.
The husband put in an appearance in the situation, and talked to the FPL
worker. The guy then called his supervisor, got the authorization, and
reinstalled the old meter. Problem solved or is it?
To some it may look like I'm one of those crabby old folks that don't give a spit
about new technology and progress. I love technology, and if I had the means,
I would probably own a lot of it, but some technology like some science is a
double edged sword.
Wireless technology is great. With computers it gets rid of a lot of the mess of
cables for many input devices and networks; however, with anything that
sends out a signal, that signal can be picked up by unwanted parties. If there
is someone interested enough to want to suss out your wireless signal(s),
there stands a chance that such an individual can use the data contained in
the signal for his or her own purposes. Encryption is no guarantee of
protection.
Some people have voiced privacy concerns with Smart Meters. The wireless
signals that are transmitted by these devices have the potential of being
intercepted by unknown and unauthorized individual(s) or party(ies). The data
of energy usage in the signals can reveal whether a residence is occupied or
not, and possibly some of the patterns of the home's residents. In that aspect
Smart Meters can be viewed as a type of surveillance device.
Some have claimed that these meters can identify individual electrical devices
in a homes, and record when they're in use; however, the meter itself is only
capable of recording and reporting total energy consumption. For it to be able
to do something more detailed would require separate devices on individual
items like the water heater, air conditioner, stove, etc., and they would have to