Privacy protection through limited load signal distortion

Advanced techniques of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) can provide power consumers with opportunities to easily and accurately track their own energy usage. However, as with any other powerful technology, there is a darker side to NILM. Since detailed monitoring requires only information about the overall power draw over a period of time, sources of such information could be used for any number of purposes. While some legal protections exist for personal information reported to a utility, and digital defenses make it difficult for unauthorized parties to obtain meter data, such measures are not infallible. They do nothing to prevent abuse by the utility itself or the surreptitious installation of a monitoring device outside a residence, place of business, embassy, etc. Therefore, a method to reduce the ability of attackers to deduce private information from an observed power signal is proposed, using some knowledge of the loads being hidden to offset identifiable load signatures in the signal for maximum ambiguity.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Nicol, Thomas

Contributors dc:contributor

• Overbye, Thomas J.

• privacy
• non-intrusive load monitoring
• load signal

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Thomas Nicol

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24158

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/24158