There is a difference between permitting access to personal information and surrendering/forfeiting control of access to that information.
As soon as I turn on an active mobile phone, I am permitting my service provider access to some important personal information, including my current location. I retain control of access to that information however, at least to the degree that I may, at any time, put my phone in Airplane Mode, or simply turn it off.
The current policy of the City of Regina, in regard to water meters, is that in order to have straight-forward access to water, a key necessity of life, I need to submit to the installation of a radio transmitter on my property that will broadcast data every hour, data that indicates whether the home is occupied during that time period, and that gives strong clues as to how many persons are present in the home. The only way I can keep back that information from the City of Regina is to not use city water routinely, over the course of the day.
It is true that the system that has been in place up until 2023 has to some degree required the surrender of control of access to water usage information. The old water meters had a broadcast function, such that a city employee parked in front of the property could take a reading while sitting in their vehicle. That arrangement, however is very different from ongoing hourly monitoring and logging, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year.
What is significant is the resolution of the data (hourly reporting) combined with the demand of the surrender of control of access to this important personal information.