Paying Your Neighbor’s Utility Bill in Minneapolis

8 Reader Comments

I hope they don’t change it. It’s really easy to pay your bill this way, you don’t need a hard copy with you to find your acct #. And while I respect privacy and everything, I’m not sure your utility bill is really that personal.

I use this often to see if my neighbor’s water is on or off. I like it to be off when their gas is off. I’m afraid that the pipes will freeze and flood their basement and my basement. (the place is vacant and attached to my house.)

I used this when one of my old landlords was a prick and didn’t give us our bills or get back to us about it.

Also, this has been an ability for years.

Its not a bug. Its deemed public information. The same as your mortgage.

So you have to ask yourselves – what would be the attack vector? The only thing I could think if is to remotely determine which houses have their utilities turned off – which would indicate that the house is vacant or owners are on vacation which would make it a easy theft target … or in the Mayors case – make him embarrassed for using too much water. OMG – watergate!

My mortgage is not public information. The water is because it is collected by the government. My morgage is through a private company. If I were foreclosed on, you could see that on the Hennepin County website because they collect that info, but you cannot see it while I’m paying on time.

But, my pay, kwatt’s pay, cjc’s pay and all other government employees pays are public info, which I find both amusing and annoying.

My salary is public too though hard to find.