ABSTRACT
These new control capacities raise the prospect of increased surveillance, social control and the commodification of information. For instance, smart metering technologies enable utilities to build up detailed information on households’ consumption patterns that go beyond total use of services (see Chapter 5). Smart electricity meters can identify what electrical appliances a household owns, how often they are used and for how long. It is not even clear who ‘owns’ this type of information but it opens up the potential for new forms of surveillance in the home. Transport telematics provide firms with increased surveillance and control opportunities over the labour process while route guidance and road pricing could be used to monitor the location and purpose of an individual’s journey.
