Yes but that’s one data point at one singular moment in time being collected by one person. Smart meters continually broadcast a constant stream of data to anyone who cares to listen.
Ha, interesting, if there really are no security mitigations, I can wardrive 2 days in a row and figure out which houses have very low power consumption, and deduce from that they are empty and I can go rob them. Ha, maybe even figure out if some power consumption means they have security devices, or just a fridge and a cooler.
And to make it worth my while I can just war-drive around the swanky areas of the city.
Or you can just war-drive around collecting the high-energy infra-violet emissions that escape through the walls at night, finding out which houses are not occupied! OMG!
Also, please excuse my pedantry, but it is impossible to rob an unoccupied dwelling.
The range is pretty limited, and there's generally nothing to stop me from either walking up to your house and reading your meter directly or from getting a pair of binoculars and doing so from your property line.
How is this? I’ve never seen meters installed in the open with the display readable. Here in the Netherlands they are usually behind two doors. The front door and the door to the cabinet with all the meters and utility connections.
Depends on the meters. My electric utility just replaced their old (circa 1999) smart meters which were one way broadcast with a new smart meter that's supposed to be two way capable. I didn't notice a lot of change at their data collection base station (which happens to be at the corner of my driveway), so I don't know if they already had a transmitter in addition to a receiver, or if it's small enough to fit in the existing equipment box or if they're using a different station.
