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The BBC is to spy on internet users in their homes by deploying a new generation of Wi-Fi detection vans to identify those illicitly watching its programmes online.
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.
Researchers at University College London disclosed that they had used a laptop running freely available software to identify Skype internet phone calls passing over encrypted Wi-Fi, without needing to crack the network password. They actually don't need to decrypt traffic, because they can already see the packets. They have control over the iPlayer, so they could ensure that it sends packets at a specific size, and match them up.
Source: The Telegraph [paywall]
Also covered by The Register.
n1: The existing TV detector van 'technology' has been in use in the UK since the 1950's, there has never been an explanation as to how they work. I am unaware of any occasions where evidence obtained by one was used to prosecute anyone.
A leaked internal document from the BBC gives a detailed breakdown of the state of licence fee payments and the number of people who evade the charge – but fails to make any mention of the detector vans.
While documenting the number of officers to collect the £145.50 fee increased to 334 this summer, an 18 page memo from the TV Licensing's Executive Management Forum obtained by the Radio Times makes no mention of the vans finding those who don't pay.
Source: The Telegraph (2013)
(Score: 4, Informative) by anubi on Monday August 08 2016, @11:21AM
The old-style TV's put out two signals during operation...
1) Horizontal Output Oscillator. Right at 15,750Hz. It drives the horizontal deflection yoke and also drove the transformer that developed the high voltage for the picture tube. This signal is phase-locked to the horizontal rate of the TV station currently tuned to. If it was not synchronized perfectly, the picture would "tear". Every vacuum tube TV I ever worked on had a little control in the front or back labeled "Horizontal Hold", that adjusted this frequency if it did not lock in properly.
You could tell what station the TV was tuned to by which station it had synchronized its oscillator to. There is so much power running around at the set at this frequency it was damn near impossible to shield it to keep it from leaving the set. No real harm if it did leave. So, it was quite easy to pick up this emitted electronic noise miles away with a suitable receiver. I am sure many of you have already experienced receiving a very similar signal .... the SMPS (SwitchMode Power Supply ) in your own computer. Many times, it was damn near impossible to receive an OTA analog TV signal on rabbit ears if you had a computer in the room switched on. The TV had one helluva time trying to figure out what to sync to... the TV signal or your computer's SMPS.
2) You had a local oscillator in your TV tuner that was 45 MHz higher than the signal you were receiving. When the two frequencies were multiplied, the sum and difference frequencies were produced, so that meant 45 MHz was one of them, and the other was way too high. The 45 MHz signal, known as the IF (Intermediate Frequency) was amplified, then the AM part of it went to vary the brightness of the scanning dot on the screen, the sync frequencies were picked out as well, and there was your audio riding on a 4.5 MHz FM carrier at the upper end of the video bandwidth. ( If you want to know more, look up "superheterodyne receiver" ).
So, in the old days, if you wanted to see if someone had a TV, just look for one or both of these signals. #1 was a *lot* stronger, but #2 was sometimes used, detected with spectrum analyzers, to get rough estimations of how many TV's were tuned to which channels by overhead aerial surveillance by plane. Sometimes networks wanted to get rough quickie indications if anyone was watching their new shows, or how many ads could they run before, say 50 percent of their viewers, abandoned the channel.
I honestly do not know if the modern digital TV's leak any identifying info on what is going through them. I used to be a radio-TV serviceman when I was a kid, and knew the old vacuum tube circuits well, but to be dead honest, I have never fixed a modern TV. I threw in the towel when replacing them was cheaper than fixing them. Besides, the new technologies very rarely ever break there.... all the malfunctions seem to be centered around the power supply - and line surges - and cheap switches.
My somewhat educated guess about a TV even being detectable these days is exactly what you say - based on fear and the belief that they *can* still see them.
These modern digital sets seem to emit the same signal no matter what they are doing - basically the processor clock. Anyone done any snooping on a modern system with a spectrum analyzer to see if it radiates anything specific to what it is doing? I have a hard time imagining how it would do so.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pe1rxq on Monday August 08 2016, @12:17PM
You probably worked with NTSC sets?
Your frequencies are slightly of. Horizontal frequency for PAL is 15.625KHz
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday August 09 2016, @07:23AM
Yup. NTSC. Long time ago in the age of the Vacuum Tube.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]