In Sacramento, privacy isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the center of a brewing legal battle that could affect how your monthly electric bill could land you in handcuffs.
Let me explain.
Back in 2020, Alfonso Nguyen watched in shock as two Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies pulled up to his home. They accused him of illegally growing cannabis and demanded to search his house. Nguyen, who uses an electric wheelchair and needs special heating and cooling equipment due to a spinal injury, refused. One of the deputies allegedly called him a liar.
That same year, in a different neighborhood, Brian Decker found himself at the business end of a sheriff’s raid. Hundreds of gallons of adrenaline and zero clothes. According to reports, deputies forced him to walk out of his home — in only his underwear — at 7 in the morning while neighbors looked on. Again, the suspicion? Illegal cannabis growing.
But here’s the twist: neither of these men were growing anything. SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, had flagged them based on their electricity usage. And that’s the heart of what’s now a major privacy case.
The EFF Steps In
Image by Tobias Tullius from Unsplash
Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital privacy advocacy group, filed a motion in Sacramento Superior Court. They’re arguing that SMUD’s practice of analyzing and sharing detailed electricity usage with law enforcement violates both federal and state privacy laws.
According to the EFF, SMUD uses smart meter data — those digital devices that read electricity usage in 15-minute chunks — and applies software to watch for patterns that might “look” like cannabis cultivation. Then, they send customer info over to the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department. No warrant. No suspicion of a crime. Just a digital hunch.
The result? More than 33,000 Sacramento-area residents have been flagged. Seriously — 33,000 people.
How It Works (and Why It’s a Problem)
SMUD’s systems comb through usage data zip code by zip code. If your home uses more than a “threshold” of electricity, they take a closer look. In the early 2010s, that threshold was 7,000 kilowatt-hours per month. As of last year, it’s dropped to just 2,800. Basically, you could trigger attention now just by running a few PCs or having special medical equipment.
They’re not just looking, either. They’re labeling. The EFF says SMUD analysts go “account by account,” speculating on how many grow lights a person might be using. In Decker’s case, their analysis said “4 to 5 grow lights from 7pm to 7am.” Turns out, he was just mining cryptocurrency.
And there’s more. In some cases, SMUD’s internal notes reportedly flagged customers with notes like “4k, Asian” and “multiple Asians have reported there.” That’s not only problematic — it’s potentially discriminatory. According to the EFF, about 86% of property owners hit with cannabis-related penalties in Sacramento between 2020 and 2022 were of Asian descent. Authorities reportedly raked in almost $100 million from these raids and fines over that time.
The Legal Line in the Sand
According to the EFF, these actions go far beyond what’s legal or ethical. They wrote in court filings, “SMUD’s disclosures invade the privacy of customers’ homes. The whole exercise is the digital equivalent of a door-to-door search of an entire city.”
Under both U.S. and California law, your home’s activity — especially things that can be inferred from behind closed doors — is supposed to be protected. And yet, because of how detailed smart meter data is, power usage trends can potentially paint an intimate picture of your life: when you cook, when you sleep, what kind of equipment you use. That’s no longer just billing info — that’s behavioral data.
And right now, in Sacramento, it’s being weaponized.
Why This Matters to the Rest of Us
Sure, this is happening in Sacramento. But if it stands, you can bet other utilities and law enforcement agencies might get ideas. After all, most electric utilities now use smart meters. And if the line between useful data and personal surveillance isn’t clearly drawn, you could be next.
Imagine getting flagged just for running an extra freezer in your garage or working strange hours from home.
What was once about stopping power theft has morphed into something else entirely — a partnership between a public utility and police that treats energy use like probable cause.
Final Thoughts
Image by Israel Fuentes from Unsplash
We’re living in a world where your home’s data might say more about you than you realize. SMUD says it’s helping law enforcement. The EFF says it’s mass surveillance.
Either way, a basic utility service — electricity — has become a lens into your private life. For now, the courts will decide if that’s allowed.
Until then, you might want to think twice about how much electricity you’re using… or at least who’s watching.
Keywords: privacy invasion, electricity usage, smart meters, surveillance, Sacramento, EFF, law enforcement.
