Privacy: Is your's doomed?

This morning I noticed this article. Privacy is something that doesn't seem to matter anymore.Giving up our privacy deserves some serious thought.  Giving it up without even knowing we are doing so, is unforgivable.

Utility companies across the U.S. are installing smart meters in customers’ homes, touting the technology’s energy-saving ways, but opponents argue that the meters are opening a Pandora’s box of privacy concerns.

The smart energy meters read electric or gas usage, and enable a power company to collect detailed usage data on a particular home or building. But the readings also gather personal information that some critics argue is too intrusive.

The information gathered from smart meters includes unencrypted data that can, among other details, reveal when a homeowner is away from their residence for long periods of time. The electric wattage readings can even decipher what type of activities a customer is engaged in, such as watching TV, using a computer or even how long someone spends cooking.

I had never thought that smart meters were invading the privacy of anyone. After reading about what these smart meters are capable of doing, I've changed my mind. Now I realize why the government has no objection to the installation of these so called smart meters. By having these smart hydro meters, the government can know approximately what you do in your own home and also when you’re not at home. By asking the Hydro company for the information about certain families the government may be interested in knowing about, the government can get a lot of private information pretty easily.

Now I don’t want to sound as if I have a bad case of paranoia, but what if the government decides to actually spy on you? What would stop them from having a litle webcam and microphone installed in a brand new television? I’m not saying it is happening or might happen, but the way things are going now, we never know who is liable to spy on us and why they are doing it? And it wouldn’t necessarily have to be our own government but any government. A foreign government would have even less business doing so. Of course if they were asked by our own government to do so they could claim it to be for security reasons. It might absolve our own government of any wrongdoing because no one would know who was really behind the invasion of privacy.

Isn’t that something to think about?