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BBC To Deploy Detection Vans To Snoop On Internet Users (telegraph.co.uk)
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.
If the BBC just proved that they need to be completely destroyed they just handed their anti-BBC crowd the ammunition to do it. Bet it won't take more then a few weeks before people start making honeypots to bait them, and wouldn't that be very fun to see in court.
Om, nomnomnom...
Actually- surely this is bollocks anyway. If you can determine who's watching iplayer by looking at encrypted packets then surely encryption is broken? Anyone with more experience care to comment?
The same way their detector vans did that detected whether you have TVs equipped for terrestrial reception, and the same way lie detectors work: They don't. They just scare you into thinking they work so you comply.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
All they need is enough packets generated by the playback of iPlayer content of various, known and non-standard sizes being transmitted to show that the user is watching it. It would be one thing if they just used a few packets, but if say 1000 packets of specific preset sizes were detected in a specific order and the sizes when translated into ASCII said "I am watching iPlayer, I love the BBC..." it would be pretty clear.
Alternatives involve stuffing programs with ads and programming intendee to chase advertising money. The TV license allows the BBC to things which are good to have, but hard to make commercially viable. As soon as you make it optional, the kind of behaviour beloved of Sky becomes necessary. Competition just means you cannot have a simple single subscription either. For me a license funded BBC is a good thing, and corporate greed and market economics devastate the possibilities of broadcast TV, reducing it to a game of chasing money. Since we already have plenty of commercial TV, making the BBC commercial will add nothing, but take away a lot.
John_Chalisque
....against all of the Orwellian tyranny that has been growing rapidly there for the past couple decades? Or had the gov't locked everybody in full body restraints including rigid mitts (figurtavely, maybe starting literally?) so fighting back is now impossible?