TN Note: Smart meters are NOT about making life more convenient for you. They are a key component of implementing Technocracy and every shred of data that can be harvested from your home is fair game for anyone with connections and money to buy it. Indeed, they will "balance the load" but they never told you that they would balance it on your back, not theirs.

Families who have digital smart energy meters installed in their homes could find the devices are being used to spy on their habits, campaigners have warned.

A Mail investigation has discovered how marketing firms are targeting data collected by smart meters, which reveal how customers use their gas and electricity, and hoping to turn the information they provide in to a steady stream of cash.

Experts say the devices might be used to provide companies with clues to information about customers' lives which can be used for profit.

Privacy campaigners fear that in the most extreme cases sensitive data could be sold onto healthcare companies which could try and sell specially targeted goods and services to these customers.

Firms must ask customers' permission before examining in depth data or selling it on to third parties.

But experts fear that many customers who sign up for a smart meter may not be aware of how their data will be used.

A spokesman for privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said: 'A smart meter will monitor your homes energy consumption, creating a honeypot of data which energy insurance and marking companies will inevitably be hungry for.

'These companies will be monitoring our every move whilst in the home.