The corporation is reportedly ready to deploy a fleet of high-tech vehicles capable of monitoring wi-fi activity to detect those watching the BBC iPlayer without a licence.
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The BBC was empowered by law to carry out surveillance of those avoiding the licence fee by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), passed in 2000. Privacy campaigners call it “creepy and worrying”.
Watching BBC TV shows online without a TV license will be illegal from September 1.
FOR the first time, students in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire will need to buy a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand.
“From September 1, everyone will need to be covered by a TV Licence to watch BBC TV programmes on demand – including catch up – on iPlayer”.
The BBC has already been investigated for its use of draconian surveillance laws to pursue non-payers of the licence fee, and has been criticised for wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds in failed prosecutions for non-fee payers.
But according to reports, the BBC has been given legal permission to use the high-tech monitoring system, which is said to be usually reserved for crime-fighting organisations.
It applies to using BBC iPlayer on all devices including a smart TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, digital box or games console, although the changes do not affect non-BBC on demand services such as ITV Player or Netflix.
The best guess is that the new detector vans will intercept wifi traffic and, without decrypting it, try to deduce (from packet sizes and timing) whether the network is carrying Iplayer traffic. “They have control over the iPlayer, so they could ensure that it sends packets at a specific size, and match them up”.
“While TV licensing have always been able to examine the electromagnetic spectrum to watch for and investigate incorrect usage of their services, the revelation that they are potentially developing technology to monitor home Wi-Fi networks is startlingly invasive”.
Ben Craig, spokesman for TV Licensing London and the south east, said: “Watching catch-up TV is really popular among students and we want to make sure students are aware of the change in law”.
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“Our use of detection is regularly inspected by independent regulators”.
