Lawsuit: SMUD and Sacramento Police Violate State Law and Utility Customers’ Privacy by Sharing Data Without a Warrant

The public power utility and police racially profiled Asian communities in the illegal data-sharing scheme.

SACRAMENTO—The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) searches entire zip codes’ worth of people’s private data and discloses it to police without a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a privacy lawsuit filed Wednesday in Sacramento County Superior Court.

SMUD’s bulk disclosure of customer utility data turns its entire customer base into potential leads for police to chase and has particularly targeted Asian homeowners, …

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