I’ve been reading about the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) providing energy usage data to the police. The idea is that supposedly high usage can identify illicit growing of cannabis. However, SMUD’s own analysts reported that the allegedly high energy usage could just be caused by having a large house, air conditioners, or a variety of perfectly legitimate reasons. Instead of working for the benefit of the public they’re supposed to serve, SMUD and the police actively engaged in illegal surveillance that caused real harm to innocent citizens.^{1 2 3}

I recently read Means of Control by Byron Tau. It does an excellent job of explaining the evolution of commercial tracking of consumers to deliver advertisements with increasing precision. It also describes how the United States government has begun buying this publicly available data to spy on people.

I found myself appalled by the scope of surveillance employed against American citizens and decided that this was a thing that needed to be resisted. I don’t imagine that anything I’m doing will have any significant impact on the larger world. I do believe that resistance matters if only to keep a spark of human spirit alive.