Energy

Letter: S.5 data collection may violate right to privacy

By on • ( 11 Comments )

To the editor: Please have your journalists look at the legality of Vermont’s newly collecting data from gas and oil suppliers that serve Vermont per Act 18 [S.5, dubbed the Affordable Heat Act]. I refer you to the eye-opening VT Public Utilities Commission Q & A with fuel dealers on their data collection process.

Due to coverage of this story, including Rob Roper’s reportage [“Clean Heat Standard explodes on launch pad, Jan. 29], I’m sure that I, along with many other Vermonters, can see this Act, and its enactment, as potentially violating Vermonters’ Constitutional Rights under Invasion of Privacy as Intrusion and further potentially, Vermont’s rights on Data Collection and Vermont’s Consumer Protection Acts and Vermont Data Broker Laws. Is Vermont itself violating its own Constitution Chapter 1 Article 11 and is now further acting as a data broker, violating its own host of consumer protection and data laws?

I did not give consent that my private account information, held by my fuel company about my fuel consumption, be supplied to any other party ever. Nor to intrude inside my household and possessions without my consent and order.

Due to the reporting and video, it is clear the State of Vermont is collecting my data directly from fuel companies that I privately buy from. Under Act 18, Vermont now has obligated the private fuel suppliers for specifics on purchases and how I (or anyone of their customers) proportions and uses that fuel within their private households (via their appliances). Should the fuel company not comply and report, they can be punished by The State for non-compliance.

Be it known, I have not given my consent to share my private information nor have I waived my right under VT Constitution to have my premises papers and possessions searched .

Apparently, per the reporting, VT has no formula to apply our private information from fuel suppliers. VT State data collection sheets are being widely and freely shared, are not secure nor encrypted in this process.

Thank you for the work and consideration. – Libby Moyer, Vershire

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Categories: Energy, Legislation

11 replies »

  1. If you go back 50 years, it was folks on the left warning that “big brother is watching”. Now it is their modus operandi. A majority of us voted for this intrusion.

  2. i did not vote for this intrusion/// more is coming to light about this crime operations/// who will go to jail///

  4. amerika is a land of gold plated grifters and zillionaire tech bros.
    Soon ALL the wealth will be in their hands and end stage capitalism will fill with bile and gas and explode into the void of other collapsed civilizations.

    • Can you point me to an example of the capitalism? I think you are confusing cronyism with capitalism. Capitalism doesn’t exist in today’s world.

      Try this:

  5. you can tell from the weather channel the locations of the cameras in this state/// it is for your safety///

  6. The right to privacy went out the window a long time ago. Third-party vendors can buy and sell most any information from just about any source for a price. Google has clear updated photos of your home, your backyard, and your whole neighborhood. Hackers have stolen and sold your information 10x over by now. The NSA, the IRS, all other 3-letter agencies, META/Facebook, Google, Microsoft know more about you than you know about yourself. The Legislature is simply following the practice of burying the legalese details in the lawfare warfare to cover their behinds. See the Patriot Act for more details.

    • I am aware. I understand. We say “ No” we say “ This is not okay” to be controlled by Big Other and undermine democracy. We inform the State of Vermont and legislatures to review their own data practices including within the crafting of the 2024 bill H.121. Perhaps you can re fresh your own resolve to say “ This is not okay” by reading Shoshana Zuboff essay below. The essay refers to her book “ The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” Zuboff’s work blew the lid on surveillance capitalism and added Big Other ( from Big Brother )to the lexicon. She notes in another interview by The Harvard Gazette that “ Every survey of internet users has shown that once people become aware of surveillance capitalists’ backstage practices, they reject them” It is not a fete accompli in Vermont. https://time.com/5602363/george-orwell-1984-anniversary-surveillance-capitalism/