After the meth hysteria, why would State tenants trust Housing NZ with mass surveillance? How to destroy their sensors!

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Well, well, well. What do we have here? The mass surveillance state intruding into the homes of state tenants…

Surveillance fears over plans to put sensors in state houses

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, and occupancy patterns in the house.

…after the horror if the meth testing hysteria that needlessly saw $120million pissed against the wall for contamination that was never dangerous, after Housing NZ threw hundreds of beneficiaries onto the streets in the middle of a homelessness crisis, after Housing NZ viciously bankrupted tenants for decontamination costs, after Housing NZ were caught out misreading THEIR OWN policy – they now want mass surveillance data inside state homes?

Note the bullshit brown wash language…

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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”.

…you gotta sprinkle in plenty of token Māori words for the brown wash to work, just like Oranga Tamariki does.

The concerns are being voiced by a Community organisation that this will be used to cut benefits and watching the pure sadistic joy these Wellington pricks get from crushing State Tenants, you KNOW the sensors will be used for that purpose…

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.

…Fuck Housing NZ, don’t trust them with this information at all and destroy the sensors.

TDB will be providing resources on how to hack the sensors and disrupt their ability to record anything meaningful.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Totally unacceptable. One can also easily imagine the outcome for those tenants “declining” HNZ’s kind offer.

    Trial sensors in 1%ers pads I say!

    • Tiger Mountain Yep, totally unacceptable. I was frankly appalled. This is Orwellian. An Orwellian first step – there’ll be others. And some pretty boy in Housing NZ has likely got a hefty performance bonus for dreaming this up.

      How people use their electricity is their own business as long as they pay their bills. I use zero heating – due partly to a pathological dislike of the lines and power companies. That could make me suspect, and subject to some nosey parker’s intrusion.

      I don’t want to start on smart meters here, but won the battle not to have a sm forced on me. Otago University has done world-leading research on them; they’re banned in some parts of the USA; the WHO thinks them carcinogenic.

      Opening doors and windows is a pretty good way of keeping indoors dry, and the air healthy. Mine are open semi-permanently. It’s nice, because sometimes I go into my living room and find that I have visitors. Sometimes I go out leaving the front door wide open – it’s far pleasanter to come home to than a locked house.

      I also often choose to not draw curtains at night – in winter, keeping the indoor and outdoor temperatures close to each other can banish condensation, so I open curtains most nights – and sometimes the windows a smidgen too. I have one offspring who sometimes sleeps in a tree hut with a kid – that could bring Oranga Tamariki waddling around.

      The biggest problem with govt depts is what they do with the information they gather, and there is always some little toady who thinks up another use.

      The time could come when folk have to stand under a running shower to have a private conversation, when all HNZ have to do is actually build houses, and build them properly, and if they think that they’re impressing people going hi-tech, they’re hopeless. First things first.

      They buggered up gloriously with meths levels and meths testing and they have boundless capacity to bugger up again.

  2. I no all you said about the past wrongs of hnz and they were completely wrong in all areas but with this situation you can only be caught doing something wrong if you’re doing something wrong. People take a 50-90 dollar a week house for granted. I’m so blessed to have my hnz home. I was homeless and now I have a lovely home in a nice street only 4 or so other hnz house’s in the street. I’m totally secure in the fact if I stick to my tenancy agreement I have this home for as long as I want it. If it’s to better the homes then why not.

    • I know an elderly lady who’s adult daughter and young baby were homeless after a relationship break down. Elderly lady had daughter and grand daughter stay in her hnz house rather than end up on the street. Hnz said no..but also said they had no housing available for daughter and her baby…mother and child ended up sleeping in a car…this technology will pick up more cases like this..expect to see more homeless women and children

      • Siobhan I knew one, v old, in her own home with her ne’er do well middle-aged son sponging off her, scared about recording herself as ‘single living alone’ for NZ Super; I didn’t understand the implications when she told me.

        Nearby property let, theoretically, to a 70 and 71 year old couple from the islands, had about 20 pairs of shoes at the front door, and small children kept hidden inside all day – something to do with WINZ.

        These HNZ sensors are meant to record when tenants close their curtains, but some like the 70 and 71 year olds keep their curtains closed permanently – they get mouldy and rot.

  3. I suggest we set up cameras outside MPS and city councilors’ officers and homes so we can know how many hours they are spending at work. I’ll also be advocating for internal cameras, live feeds, in council offices and MPs officers to see how much time they are wasting and who they are meeting with. Sensors will record everything in minute detail, including the content of their fart gas, to determine how much they are spending on booze, aged steak, psychiatric medication, and lube.

  4. Isn’t the government’s mantra ‘warm, dry, housing’ – so they need to gauge how warm, and dry they are making it for the new regulations coming in for healthy homes. To do that they need sensors.

    Surveillance state is here already. They are also planning more cameras on the roads to track people’s movements etc and give people more fines, apparently to make the roads safer…

    More surveillance on gun owners and people in general to make us safer…

    Personally would prefer more freedom and privacy because it seems modern ‘safety’ is more about control and revenue, than safety!

  5. Orh, come on, be fair … We – the mass consciousness of arch-conservative ‘Heartland’ N Zed – have gotta have some way to demonize State House tenants, along with beneficiaries, the working poor and gangs … otherwise people will start thinking they’re ordinary people, just like them … us …

  6. There is a case to monitor some sate housing far tighter than currently happens. Some tenants are just shit and trashing the places which costs all NZers in numerous ways, all bad.

    Mind you the way this Govt is booting out the tenants then boarding up state houses would suggest shortly there will be feck all left. In the last 12-18 months there would be well over 100 booted and boarded, another only yesterday. Over the 20 something years we’ve lived here there has been maybe 3 or 4 houses boarded up, mainly due to being trashed by the filth residing in them, but they have been very short term vacant. I can see out my window some which have been boarded up for over a year now. And the pace at which more has accelerated over the last 6 months. So much for a housing crisis or a need for more staties, it very much appears the Govt doesn’t think there is any need.

    Then again some tenants needed to be booted as they are simply filth, I mean the tenants which then lead to the house being trashed which then lead to the street outside it being turned into a shithole.

    • Peter Barry, I don’t like people being referred to as filth. Sometimes there are cultural differences.

      I spoke with the official who attended a state house in Porirua where the tenants dug a hole down through the living room floor to make a fire pit. They removed kitchen cupboard doors, and replaced them with wire netting, and kept hens in the cupboards in the kitchen. An electrician told me of an oven with fire wood in it.

      Private property owners can have property managers do regular property inspections; one nearby who failed to, found his exited tenants left paint ball stains on the walls and carpets, hammered nails into the walls to hang clothes on, chopped down established trees and shrubs to enable their’s and their friends cars to park on what was once lawn and garden, rather than park on the street as other’s visitors do, but instead created a swamp, left a broken fence, and a house infested with cockroaches and fleas – painters walked off the job so that it could be fumigated.

      Samoans are known not to respect boundaries, to climb over fences etc; After a Samoan colleague complained of this, and I had a bad experience, I considered writing to the Samoan embassy about educating their emigrants about the customs of the countries to which they depart.

      I visit my parents grave via parking my car and walking. Pacifica drive all over other people’s graves. Some need to be told that placing their music systems in the window and playing loud drum music for the whole neighbourhood to hear is not necessarily regarded as friendly, and when in Rome, do as Rome does.

      Regular property inspections could prevent damage which the taxpayer has to pay for, and if warrantable, people booted out.

      • You don’t like the term filth then dive straight into blatant racism on many levels, Dude really???

        That aside, I’m not a huge fan of calling anyone anything, hence I didn’t and don’t classify any of the state tenants on racial, cultural or any other grounds other than how they treat public goods and the local area, but sometimes some humans do need other adjectives to describe them. If you have seen what I have over the last few decades ‘filth’ is a very tame description of a few, note the use of the word ‘few’. Some have been utter low life sub human scum but many have and are bloody nice people who treat their state house better than many private owners.

        As a FYI, most of the newer tenants of late tend to be not born in NZ, don’t speak English as their primary language a few don’t speak English at all, do have some form of disability be it physical or mental, are living in a non-standard relationships, tend to drive new flash vehicles, have Sat TV dishes fitted and are strong drinkers (judging by the over flowing recycling bins). Does that make then bad people? Nope not necessarily but just like a few are awesome people a few are also scum.

        • Peter Barry I stated facts, this isn’t racism.

          If, as you say, the majority of HNZ tenants now come from off shore, then the case for property managers actually keeping an eye on things, is more compelling. If the NZ taxpayer has paid for the housing, then it may be a frivolous use of their money to do otherwise.

          Some private property managers provide tenants with a list of requirements and expectations regarding the property, and letterbox it to the immediate neighbours also; this works well. As far as I know they all do regular property inspections, both indoors and out.

          I do not know whether HNZ provides tenants with copies of their expectations, but managing properties by remote control could be regarded as unrealistic – albeit cheap.

  7. Aside from privacy concerns (eg…increased power consumption/lighting suggesting an “extra” tenant in the property), I worry about the method by which this would be collected.

    5G has NOT been proven safe and a number of places have banned it at least until safety data can be provided. Other wireless devices do affect some people more than others. I happen to know someone who has an immune system that is very damaged and he reacts to wireless in the environment and his health suffers. Regardless on where you stand on 5G those in state housing, many of whom have severe health conditions, shouldn’t be guinea pigs just because they either choose to participate, or likely become homeless.

  8. What is most offensive about these sensors is that HNZ can’t even do basic maintenance on houses. Why would having more data make a difference? Doesn’t it make more sense to do ACTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT with regular visits + speaking with tenants?
    Why is HNZ showering some people with resources and ignoring others?

    HNZ would do better to organise a trailer park for the homeless to gather.

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