Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
114 F. Supp. 3d 606 (2015)
- Written by Robert Cane, JD
Facts
The Naperville Department of Public Utilities-Electric, which was owned and operated by the City of Naperville (defendant) instituted the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative. The initiative called for the replacement of analog electricity meters with smart meters. Smart meters measured aggregate electricity usage in intervals of 15 minutes, providing electricity-usage measurements totaling thousands of intervals per month. Analog meters were read once per month. Customers consented to data collection when they agreed to electricity service from the city. Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (NSMA) (plaintiff) had a mission to advocate for responsible utility metering. NSMA sued the city, arguing that the collection of data from smart meters was an unreasonable search of utility-customer information in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court granted the city’s motion to dismiss NSMA’s first amended complaint, holding that there existed no reasonable expectation of privacy in aggregate measurements of electricity usage. The district court granted in part and denied in part the city’s motion to dismiss NSMA’s second amended complaint, holding that the aggregate-usage data was not entitled to Fourth-Amendment protection. NSMA moved for leave to file a third amended complaint, alleging that the city had access to energy-disaggregation software technology, which allowed for the city to breakdown usage data into more granular information.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Lee, J.)
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