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BBC To Deploy Detection Vans To Snoop On Internet Users (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the creepy-and-worrying dept.

product_bucket writes: The BBC has been given permission to use a new technology to detect users of the iPlayer who do not hold a TV license. Researchers at University College London have apparently developed a method to identify specially crafted "packets" of data over an encrypted Wi-Fi link without needing to break the underlying encryption itself. TV Licensing (the fee-collecting arm of the BBC) has said the practice is under regular scrutiny by independent regulators, but declined to elaborate on how the technique works. Dr Miguel Rio, a computer network expert who helped to oversee the doctoral thesis, said: "They actually don't need to decrypt traffic, because they can already see the packets. They have control over the iPlayer, so they can ensure that it sends packets at a specific size, and match them up. They could also use directional antennae to ensure they are viewing the Wi-Fi operating within your property." The BBC has been given such authority through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck. by mr_jrt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think it'll be quite obvious when I notice the cat5 snaking up from a parked van to my wired network. :)

    --
    Boo.
    1. Re:Good luck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Resulting a deadmau5.

    2. Re:Good luck. by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Funny

      Of course, I remember the old days. BBC and a bailiff come with a knock on the door of our squat.

      "We are here to deliver notice of operating an unlicensed television, and register collection of a license fee." Mind you, the license fee in those day were less than 145 quid, but despite all, we were skint and didn't have it.

      Well, I insisted we were exempt, 'cos the telly was free, left behind in the flat before we came - and for good reason! The only button that worked was for ITV.

      I tried to demonstrate this to the assembled officials by summarizing the most recent "Lady Loves Milk Tray" and just how funny it would be, if the secret agent had been revealed in closing shot to be Leonard Rossiter.

      We were delivered a bailiff's notice to pay the fee or surrender the telly. I'm pretty sure that that was the beginning of the MDMA period, come to think.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
  2. It's the internet detector van! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right, Viv - eat the WiFi!

  3. They're going to need a lot of fuel... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    To find me in SoCal.