- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

'Startlingly Invasive': BBC to Use Wi-Fi Spies to Find Viewers Watching for Free

© Flickr / Intel Free PressWi-Fi Logo
Wi-Fi Logo - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The BBC is set to deploy a fleet of vans equipped with surveillance devices in September, in efforts to identify those watching Beeb programs online without paying a TV license fee.

Those in the UK who have been enjoying iPlayer, but have not paid a TV license fee, are now at risk of being outed by snooper vans that BBC plans to send out next month. The new vans, equipped with an as-yet-unidentified surveillance technology, will snoop private Wi-Fi networks and purportedly allow the identification of unlicensed streams.

Wi-Fi in a telephone booth - Sputnik International
No Cell Phone or Wi-Fi in This US Town
According to a new law coming into effect September 1, anyone using iPlayer for catch-up or on-demand viewing must purchase a TV license as well. To enforce the new requirement, BBC is reportedly being given special privileges by the government to use Wi-Fi sniffing technology normally only available to police and crime-fighting agencies.

The BBC hasn't revealed which snooper method they will use, but one popular theory is that the vans will intercept Wi-Fi traffic and use encrypted packets and specific timing to identify whether a network is carrying iPlayer traffic. This method relies on the ability of the BBC to introduce specific packet timing and size elements into iPlayer traffic, acting as a fingerprint.

The plans for the new spy vans were published in a report carried out by the National Audit Office.

"Detection vans can identify viewing on a non‐TV device in the same way that they can detect viewing on a television set," the report reads.

Many doubt that the vans will be effective, in light of simple workarounds available online, and are wondering whether the announcement is a attempt to intimidate and coerce those those viewing BBC content. But others are more concerned over the obvious privacy issues. A spokesperson from watchdog Privacy International described monitoring internet traffic on home Wi-Fi networks as "startlingly invasive." The corporation insists its inspectors will not pry into the browsing habits of the viewers.

"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," a BBC spokesperson claimed in a statement.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала