Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian has launched a publication aimed at guiding utilities on how to protect consumers' personal information in the smart grid, IT World reports. The commissioner partnered with Hydro One and Toronto Hydro to publish "Privacy by Design: Achieving the Gold Standard in Data Protection for the Smart Grid," which outlines best practices. The smart grid will digitize consumer energy information, in some cases down to the appliance level. "The smart grid's impact is being compared to the advent of the Internet, which was built without privacy in mind and which now faces an extreme impediment and very high levels of scrutiny regarding privacy," the publication states. Cavoukian said the time to embed privacy into the design of the smart grid is "during its infancy." (Watch IT World's interview with Commissioner Cavoukian here.)
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