Guidance on the usability-privacy tradeoff for utility customer data aggregation

Benjamin L. Ruddell; Dan Cheng; Eric Daniel Fournier; Stephanie Pincetl; Caryn Potter; Richard Rushforth

doi:10.1016/j.jup.2020.101106

Guidance on the usability-privacy tradeoff for utility customer data aggregation

Benjamin L. Ruddell, Dan Cheng, Eric Daniel Fournier, Stephanie Pincetl, Caryn Potter, Richard Rushforth

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Modern cities, along with their researchers and innovators can benefit from applying “ big data” to their sustainability and infrastructure problems and policies, e.g., water and energy consumption. Unfortunately, current utility customer data (UCD) privacy rulemaking fails to ensure safe release of these data for the public benefit and does not currently strike a sound balance between the competing values of usability and privacy. This paper presents a statistical analysis of the tradeoff between usability and privacy for UCD in Los Angeles. The tradeoffs vary by economic sector (residential vs. commercial/industrial) and by utility type (water, electricity, natural gas). This paper provides guidance for safer and more ethically balanced aggregation and release of utility customer data.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	101106
Journal	Utilities Policy
Volume	67
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2020.101106
State	Published - Dec 2020
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Data aggregation
Data de-identification
Data ethics
Data privacy
Regulation
Utility customer data
Utility data policy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Business and International Management
Transportation
Sociology and Political Science
Economics and Econometrics
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)
General Energy
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Law

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10.1016/j.jup.2020.101106

Cite this

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abstract = "Modern cities, along with their researchers and innovators can benefit from applying “ big data” to their sustainability and infrastructure problems and policies, e.g., water and energy consumption. Unfortunately, current utility customer data (UCD) privacy rulemaking fails to ensure safe release of these data for the public benefit and does not currently strike a sound balance between the competing values of usability and privacy. This paper presents a statistical analysis of the tradeoff between usability and privacy for UCD in Los Angeles. The tradeoffs vary by economic sector (residential vs. commercial/industrial) and by utility type (water, electricity, natural gas). This paper provides guidance for safer and more ethically balanced aggregation and release of utility customer data.",

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volume = "67",

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AU - Ruddell, Benjamin L.

AU - Cheng, Dan

AU - Fournier, Eric Daniel

AU - Pincetl, Stephanie

AU - Potter, Caryn

AU - Rushforth, Richard

PY - 2020/12

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AB - Modern cities, along with their researchers and innovators can benefit from applying “ big data” to their sustainability and infrastructure problems and policies, e.g., water and energy consumption. Unfortunately, current utility customer data (UCD) privacy rulemaking fails to ensure safe release of these data for the public benefit and does not currently strike a sound balance between the competing values of usability and privacy. This paper presents a statistical analysis of the tradeoff between usability and privacy for UCD in Los Angeles. The tradeoffs vary by economic sector (residential vs. commercial/industrial) and by utility type (water, electricity, natural gas). This paper provides guidance for safer and more ethically balanced aggregation and release of utility customer data.

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KW - Regulation

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Guidance on the usability-privacy tradeoff for utility customer data aggregation

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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