BBC Now Training Its Secret, Likely Imaginary, Fleet Of Detector Vans On Your WiFi
from the is-this-really-a-good-use-of-resources? dept
Nearly a decade ago, we wrote about the fact that the BBC supposedly has a fleet of totally secret "detector" vans that drive around trying to figure out who was watching the BBC without paying for it. As you probably know, if you live in the UK, you're forced to buy a BBC license if you have a TV or a TV turner card. And, for years, they've claimed to have had these magical detector vans. When we wrote about them in 2008, it was because a freedom of information request to find out about the vans was denied for the most ridiculous of reasons: revealing the details of the vans "would damage the public's perception of the effectiveness of the TV detector vans." In other words, the "vans" -- if they exist at all -- were more about scaring people into paying, rather than actually detecting those watching the BBC without a license.Either way, those vans are back in the news, after the Telegraph reported that the vans have now been outfitted with apparent WiFi detection tools as well to go after people watching the BBC online without paying:
The Telegraph can disclose that from next month, the BBC vans will fan out across the country capturing information from private Wi-Fi networks in homes to “sniff out” those who have not paid the licence fee.A researcher interviewed in the article suggests -- without actual knowledge -- that the system could work in a manner in which the BBC's iPlayer deliberately sends packets of certain sizes, and then the van could use a packet sniffer to look for matching sized packets, without actually capturing any of the actual internet traffic. In other words, it might make use of certain forms of (you guessed it...) metadata. Of course, this is all speculation, and given the earlier reports on the van's Potemkin Village nature, it pays to be skeptical that the vans really do anything at all, beyond trying to scare people into paying licensing fees. After lots of people ran with the Telegraph's original claims, it now appears (thankfully) that at least some reporters are finally skeptical of these special new "WiFi snooping" vans.
The corporation has been given legal dispensation to use the new technology, which is typically only available to crime-fighting agencies, to enforce the new requirement that people watching BBC programmes via the iPlayer must have a TV licence.
Even if the vans don't really work (or exist), it still should serve as a clear reminder of how surveillance efforts are at least a constant temptation for those in power, allowing what was officially put in place for "national security" to creep into totally unrelated areas. If media companies could actually build a van to cruise around and sniff WiFi looking for pirates, does anyone really think they wouldn't do so?
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Filed Under: detector vans, surveillance, tv, tv licenses, uk, wifi
Companies: bbc
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VAn hoax
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Re: VAn hoax
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Re: VAn hoax
It's true, the black and white licence is cheaper. £145.50 for colour vs £49.00 for a black and white - per year, per household. And they can't tell.
"And what if the evil "evader" forsook wi-fi and wireless and hooked up all his kit with cat 5 cable?"
Doesn't matter either way, the whole "detection" thing is BS.
"And since most of the interesting BBC stuff winds up on usenet and torrents anyway, how could they possibly discover people viewing downloaded files?"
The BBC generally don't pursue pirates in that sense, they aka the government just want to make sure people buy a licence.
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Re: VAn hoax
Technically, you totally can determine this from a distance. The only black and white TVs that exist (to the best of my knowledge) are analog ones. Analog TVs emit radio interference that can be detected from a surprisingly long distance, and the signal patterns emitted are distinctly different for color vs black and white televisions.
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Re: Re: VAn hoax
Also-IIRC, the searchers were accompanied by a police officer, but the police officer would not be the one who executed the search order; it wasn't a legally enforced warrant, and could be refused.
TV licence collection has always been theatre. I happen to value the BBC highly though I only use a fraction of its services, and am happy to pay for it. Really not sure how I feel about forcing others to pay it. I'm sure all of you "Muh Freedoms!" chaps are against it, but it's just that good and useful and awesome...
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I think objectively, it's wrong.
But I'm in no particular hurry to do anything about it, because it produces some of if not the best TV and related services in the world fairly economically and without adverts.
Better yet, their charter concentrates on the good of the people, rather than the good of the shareholders or the few at the top - and it shows.
It's a fine example of a system that is objectively wrong doing a better job than the alternatives we have so far discovered.
Those who need a simple worldview will be up in arms about it, but the rest of us sometimes just have to shrug and accept that the world is complicated. We've got what we've got, and there's no point trying to tear down something grand just because the idealogy is at odds with us.
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Re: VAn hoax
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costs far outweigh not only the benefits but even the *potential* benefits? Check
skin deep appearance of accomplishing something without actually doing so? Check
Details are kept secret (for our own good of course)? Check
Must be a government idea.
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They don't exist
Oh and for the record the BBC itself has said that the Telegraphs claims are bullshit. (it's worth noting the Tory supporting Telegraph hate the BBC and would like nothing better than to see it privatised) Anyway..
The BBC issued a statement following the claims.
“There has been considerable inaccurate reporting this weekend about how TV Licensing will detect people breaking the law by watching BBC iPlayer without a licence. While we don't discuss the details of how detection works for obvious reasons, it is wrong to suggest that our technology involves capturing data from private wi-fi networks.”
El Reg has a decent piece on how it is and I quote "As our analysis suggested, the Telegraph's article about the BBC sniffing Wi-Fi is complete bollocks"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/06/bbc_detector_van_wi_fi_iplayer/
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Re: They don't exist
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So they exist, but in all likelihood are just ordinary vans, decal'd up for show. It's a bit like the 'headlights' on a Nascar.
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Detect the RF from TV sets
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Re: Detect the RF from TV sets
It's also worth noting that by the governments own figures less than 2% of households don't have licence. It's hard worth the cost of enforcing.
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Re: Detect the RF from TV sets
Flat panel display emit RF interference as well, but it's in an entirely different frequency range from analog displays. Aside from doing Van Eck phreaking* to look at the image being displayed, there would be no way to detect if the display is connected to a TV tuner or not.
*Van Eck phreaking is a way of reconstructing an image from the RF emissions of of a display device. It's easy with analog displays, but can be done with LCDs as well: https://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/04/seeing-through-walls.html
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Mike: "Vivian, eat the telly."
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More likely to find my 'alf a bee, Eric.
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The BBC has said that they simply are not doing it, so don't even need permission.
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A much more likely scenario...
These "WiFi Detector Vans" will look for WiFi, but having WiFi with no discernible BBC iPlayer data going through it, or even the simple lack of a WiFi signal coming from your property will be all the "proof" they need to suspect that you are a just another "dirty" ethernet cable user.
Be careful world, the firemen are coming.
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So, did the ...
'ear 'ear!
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First they pick some random street in the ass end of the middle of nowhere, then they find out who in that street has said TV license.
Then they just harrass the ones who don't.
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"given legal dispensation"
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Re: "given legal dispensation"
This, along with shakedowns as you said, is why "laws, because terrorism" must be treated with the utmost suspicion and cynicism.
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this is why a personla localized emp emitter is only so far away
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BBC detector vans
I have renamed my two modem/routers "StingRay 16" and "Stingray 32"
I just wonder who will knock on my door??
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Re:
You should visit us. We'll be watching...
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