Private terrain? Where? The woods?
MONTHS ago I politely ranted about our local government pushing people to use "apps" and "Web site" instead of traditional face-to-face meetings and verified paperwork. They not only punish "old people" (who aren't ready to familiarise themselves with technology that they hardly even need anyway); they harm human rights, too.
"In fact, when switching between providers they make it virtually impossible to reject those surveillance devices, which share collected data with all sorts of third parties or have the potential to do that at any time in the future."Our new provider, which bought our prior provider, is truly terrible. I was warned about it in advance by a friend; he tried hard to abandon them, so I was preconditioned to distrust them. Yesterday I finally confronted them over the telephone for their considerable price hikes. Not small hikes, but very major ones -- almost 10%, for the second time in less than a year. I've long heard the theory about us having to collectively foot the bill for those unable to pay (due to job losses in a pandemic), almost as though the providers are just "Too big/important to fail," so customers need to bail them out or something (or cover outrageous costs of managers' massive salaries). Now it turns out that they're massively increasing energy prices even when the price of energy generally goes down (lowered demand worldwide) and moreover they're trying to penalise people, about 50 pounds a year (3 times more than before), for rejecting a SPY meter. There's nothing "smart" or "green" about forcing people to use Web sites (computers use power) and sending them no paper (gas consumption pollutes far more than a single sheet of paper).
"For the time being we're still assessing our options and speaking to friends."This isn't about progress or anything "Smart" (this isn't "high tech"; it could be done decades ago, feasibly and affordably, but the agenda was different back then). They're trying to push people to use "Web site" and "SPY meters"; sadly, they're not alone either, as they already use financial sanctions against people who don't obey unless they can provide proof they cannot physically cope with such 'technology' (old tech suddenly imposed by governments and companies that besiege those governments... how "Smart").
Remember that whatever version of "SPY meter" they offer today will later be replaced with "newer and better version" (the "old one" becomes "no longer compatible"), complete with additional and 'novel' spy features, e.g. sensors you cannot disable. The same has been happening with routers and TV sets. Nowadays many TVs "watch" the viewer (see Wikileaks/Vault 7 for technical details).
Don't be too shocked if future versions add microphones for instructions/directions by speech. The listening devices/bug makers (notable among them is Amazon) euphemistically call them "assistants".
For the time being we're still assessing our options and speaking to friends. Bringing surveillance capitalism to the very heart of every home ought not be an objective and should certainly not be imposed. Using the pandemic to speed up such a nefarious agenda is an insult to the many victims of COVID. ⬆
Note: names of vendors and brands are omitted; they don't matter as the problems are generic and largely applicable in many countries outside the United Kingdom