Tui ad here? … The question to be asked is why the homes of the poor and vulnerable? Why does the government not put sensors into wealthy homes? They are cloaking this sinister spying eye (let’s call it what it is) with a guise of benevolence & placing them in the homes of people who can’t really refuse them. Unless they want to join ranks of the 43K homeless. The rich & powerful of course would resist them quite successfully. And since when did Housing NZ morph into Kāinga Ora? It had all but disappeared when I attempted to find them all of four years ago (after Key had hocked off & land banked thousands of state homes sitting on prime real estate which is a large part of why we have a homeless problem… Key forgot he was raised in one). This ‘smart’ terminology is Agenda 21/30 technology. Can sniff it a mile away now. Sustainable is the other buzz word. There is nothing smart about sensors on your home. Since when did they care about the homeless, the warmth of your home or the standard of living you have? That ceased with Rogernomics and any rhetoric about caring is always a smoke screen for other agendas. I repeat they do not care. In this case it’s getting you under surveillance & control. Your smart meters do the same job ultimately which is why they have been vigilantly pushing them from day one. Add to that the led street lamps that are also surveillance tools … emitting radiation also, stand under them with an accoustimeter & see the high readings. So here we have it, pack and stack housing, the withering of the state housing stock with rebuilds further off on the horizon now, they are threatening mandatory vaccines, disarming you and arming the Police to the teeth ostensibly to protect you but I hear they’ve been calling on folk to question them on their political views. This is intimidating behavior as also is the placing of sensors on your house.

The corporation parading as a government would do well to spy on the corporate criminals in my opinion. But then they’d be spying on their own & they won’t be doing that any time soon.

And while they’re at it they need to tax themselves at the same rate as the real workers. EWR

Read the article at the link:

From Radio NZ

Plans to collect data by putting sensors in thousands of state houses could result in the information being used to cut benefit payments or even evict tenants, a charity familiar with the project says.

From next May, Kāinga Ora – Housing New Zealand’s successor – wants to begin installing multiple sensors in up to 2000 state houses as part of its Smart Homes project.

The sensors would measure internal humidity and temperature, carbon dioxide levels, light and air pressure, and external temperature and humidity. In some houses, sensors would also collect information about power consumption on up to six separate circuits in each house.

The data, which could be collected for as long as eight years, could be used to work out patterns as granular as when lights were switched on or off, when curtains were drawn, or how many people were in a room.

According to the project’s Request for Proposals (RFP), the aim is to “better understand how [Kāinga Ora] customers use their homes and what barriers there may be to keeping their homes warm, dry and healthy for themselves and their whānau”.

However, the charity Whare Hauora, which provides similar sensors for whānau to use in their own homes, said the scope of the information the project proposed to collect was unnecessary and invasive.

“They’ve taken a technology that they think is cool and then they’re applying it to our vulnerable families whole-hog, and they’re not seeing the impacts,” Whare Hauora kaiwhakahaere (chief executive) Hīria Te Rangi said. “They’re just not thinking it though.”

Despite reassurances from Kāinga Ora, the charity feared the data could be misused by officials – including as evidence to evict families for overcrowding or cut benefit payments for sole parents who had someone sleeping over.

The charity’s concerns were so great that it had chosen not to tender for the project, Ms Te Rangi said.

It wanted the agency to hit pause on the project while it was re-designed with improved ethics and better engagement with tenants.

In a notice to RFP respondents, Kāinga Ora said it would not be using carbon dioxide to measure overcrowding.

Whare Hauora director Amber Craig said she was wary of that.

“To be honest, I’m a Māori woman who has been proven right time and time again not to trust the government with our data.

“Although they say at the moment that they’re not going to use the data in that way, my concern is that there is no visibility if they … suddenly then use that data in not very good ways.”

For that reason, tenants should retain ownership of the data, with full access to their own information and the ability to opt out of certain measurements or research projects, she said.

“[Currently] there’s no opt-in or opt-out, it’s a full, you opt into everything.”

Kāinga Ora did not respond to RNZ’s specific questions about the Smart Homes project or agree to an interview.

In a statement, national portfolio manager Monique Fouwler said the extra information from the sensors would help the agency to work with tenants “to improve and enhance their home’s performance, including trialling different or innovative products, components or services”.

“We will be clear that this information will not be used for other purposes, such as understanding overcrowding,” she said.

The first results of a pilot in Lower Hutt and Palmerston North had provided “valuable insights”, Ms Fouwler said.

“This has included actions they can take such as extra ventilation, or property remediation for us to carry out in some cases.”

Tenants would be provided with a detailed consent form and their relationship with Kāinga Ora would not be affected if they choose not to participate, she said.

They could access their data in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Hīria Te Rangi said anecdotal evidence from some tenants in the pilot study was that they had not yet seen any of their data, nor did they understand all the potential uses.

“Two actually came up to me and said they didn’t realise CO2 measurements could be translated into how many people at whatever time of night.”

University of Auckland senior lecturer Donna Cormack, who specialises in Māori health and data sovereignty, said it was important that everybody had the chance to live in a safe, healthy home.

However, she did not get the sense from the RFP that Kāinga Ora had properly considered all the implications of its project.

“It feels almost like there’s a technological imperative that’s driving it … because we can collect this data we should collect this data, rather than a more considered approach.”

Even if Kāinga Ora’s intentions were good, she was still concerned about “a creeping, increasing type of surveillance capacity being built … without mechanisms that allow communities to be really engaged in the process”.

“Any technology or research project where we’re introducing a device that allows for quite an intrusive level of surveillance … particularly where those technologies are controlled by government agencies or corporations, I think need to be approached very carefully.”

SOURCE

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/405670/surveillance-fears-over-plans-to-put-sensors-in-state-houses?fbclid=IwAR1MugzNICG9RIsh2bhPBZl5eq6tQymiXizzKbHYnNleB8Phi24hX5DhYiU