The smart energy meters used in an increasing number of Dutch homes can threaten household privacy, Raj Samani, CTO at internernational security company McAfee, told website nu.nl in an interview.

Smart meters show energy firms directly how much energy is being used, but these patterns in energy usage could eventually be used by hackers to determine if people are home and what apparatus they have, Samani is quoted as saying by nu.nl.

‘I can tell you what film you are watching. I can tell you when the jacuzzi is on,’ he said.

The McAfee executive went on to call on manufacturers to take equipment security and the privacy of users better into account. Privacy by design must be central, he said.