They will install new gas meters. Serious threat

• The draft amendment to the Energy Law provides for the installation of smart gas meters.
• The President of the Office for Personal Data Protection warns that new solutions involve the risk of violating privacy.
• It emphasises that the law must clearly define the rules for processing this information.

The draft amendments to the Energy Law include provisions that allow the installation of smart gas meters in our homes, which will send data on gas consumption to the supplier, who will issue the bill. The change will also enable users to track consumption and optimize costs.

Mirosław Wróblewski, the president of the Personal Data Protection Office, sent his comments on the draft amendments. As he noted, the solution is inextricably linked to the processing of personal data.

However, the project does not specify who would have access to data from the meter - only the recipient, or also the distribution system operator or other entities - we read.

The President of the UODO added that in the second case, the personal data of the final recipient concerning the consumption and time of day at which a specific recipient uses gas would be processed. "Therefore, the law must clearly indicate who will have access to such information, for what specific purpose, as well as in what manner and for how long this data will be processed," he noted.

Serious threat. They will install new gas meters

The UODO also assesses that the European Energy Efficiency Directive indicates that if Member States implement intelligent metering systems and distribute smart natural gas meters, they must, among other things, ensure:

• security of meters and data transmission,
• privacy of end recipients.

The President of the UODO pointed out that it is important whether the processing of personal data from meters will be associated with the risk of automated processing of recipients’ data, including profiling.

GDPR (in Article 22) gives the data subject the right not to be subject to a decision that is based solely on automated processing, including profiling. This is important because entities, together with information obtained from meters, will learn about the quantities and when the recipient uses devices using gas fuel - we read.

As a good example of regulation concerning automated processing, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office indicated Article 105a paragraph 1a of the Banking Law, which establishes guarantees for the protection of the rights and freedoms of natural persons against whom a decision related to the assessment of creditworthiness is to be issued based solely on automated processing, including profiling.

"This provision provides for: the right to receive appropriate explanations as to the basis for the decision taken, the right to obtain human intervention in order to make a new decision and the right to express one's own position," the press release summarised.