Abstract
Smart water meters at household connections are being installed in large numbers throughout the world due to the benefits they are expected to bring to the water utilities and water consumers. Smart metering provides high-resolution readings and promises benefits to the water utilities, such as demand forecasting, regulating time-of-use watering, and making intelligent operation and planning decisions. For the consumers, smart metering promises improved billing and demand reduction by providing detailed and timely information about their water use and early notification of possible water leaks in their premises. However, the fine-grained information collected by smart meters raises growing concerns of privacy invasion due to personal behavior exposure (private activity, daily routine, etc.). Nevertheless, there is no readily available technology for protecting water consumers from revealing their in-home private activities. Thus, a viable argument in favor of smart metering technologies will not be possible without proactively accounting for the associated privacy challenges. Here, we present a practical technology coupling a dedicated apparatus with a control model for increasing personal privacy. We quantify the level of privacy achieved using information-theoretic criterion and an empirically based occupancy detection method between the smart meter readings and actual water use. Furthermore, we evaluate and compare privacy protection using the best effort approach previously developed for masking activities revealed from smart electricity meters. The main results reveal that simple control actions can disguise personal behavior patterns and, thus, hedge against privacy breach in smart water meters. Furthermore, we quantify the trade-off between the size of the apparatus and the level of privacy protection it provides. Our results demonstrate how “privacy friendly” smart water metering technology could be implemented in real-life systems and reduce the privacy concerns of water consumers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2020WR027917 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
| Journal | Water Resources Research |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Sep 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by the Israeli Water Authority and by the Center for Cyber Law & Policy at the University of Haifa in conjunction with the Israel National Cyber Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office. This work was also supported by the University of Texas at Austin Startup Grant and by Cooperative Agreement 83595001 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to The University of Texas at Austin. This work has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Israeli Water Authority and by the Center for Cyber Law & Policy at the University of Haifa in conjunction with the Israel National Cyber Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office. This work was also supported by the University of Texas at Austin Startup Grant and by Cooperative Agreement 83595001 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to The University of Texas at Austin. This work has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency. EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
- privacy hedging
- residential water use
- smart water meters
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Water Science and Technology
