[Buckeye McFrog]

Why do people fear smart meters?

1) They violate your privacy by creating detailed records on what appliances you are using and when. State laws to guard the privacy of those records have been foiled by billion-dollar lobbying campaigns by Facebook and Google, who want access to your data.

2) The smart meter can become the gateway to many other invasions of your privacy if you are foolish enough to equip your home with IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Think cameras and mics being turned on remotely, etc.

3) Smart meters give BIG BROTHER the ability to turn off your heat or AC whenever THEY think you are using too much energy.

If our forefathers did not take up arms at Lexington and Concord to stop stuff like THIS I don't know why they did.

[oh8eleven]

Smart meters give BIG BROTHER the ability to turn off your heat or AC whenever THEY think you are using too much energy.
The same can be said for smart thermostats and even smart shower heads. Personally, I'll resist installing any of these smart invasions of privacy to the bitter end.
The same goes for those "intelligent home assistants" like Siri or Google Home.

[USMCPOP]

“They violate your privacy by creating detailed records on what appliances you are using and when.”

Since when? I’ve been out of the metering industry for a number of years, but I’m not aware of how they can monitor specific appliances. My toaster, refrigerator, microwave and water heater are all dumb. And I don’t think my 320 Amp “smart meter” is big or beefy enough to cut off that kind of current. Not all meters have load shedding devices connected. The only thing I’m aware of in a residential setting is some cases of the power company providing a device to connect to a water heater.

[glorgau]

Listen, if someone wanted to snoop on you by your power usage, there are much more sophisticated ways of doing it these days. For instance, a startup of which I'm familiar - I've chatted with some of the engineers building the data analysis portion of it - it's pretty much run of the mill big data analysis stuff.

Sense - Track energy use in real time at the sub-second level.

This is independent of any utility and in the future I'd bet that the analysis can be done downstream and not have to be installed into a homes' electrical panel. Privacy is over, get over it.

[backwoods-engineer]

Your 3 reasons are invalid. You sign a contract to agree to time of use cutoff of electric water heater, pool pump, etc. If you don’t like free money, DON’T SIGN UP FOR IT!

[MarMema]

here is the electric company we have

I am 100% for these meters because when our power goes out and it's -30 outside, there they are a few minutes later.