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I am not sure how many people outside the UK are aware of this, but a similar thing has existed there for nearly 70 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_det

by slg 7y ago

I am not sure how many people outside the UK are aware of this, but a similar thing has existed there for nearly 70 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van

dcminter 7y ago
The vans exist. The implied technology within them not so much. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/bbc-tv-licence-vans-wi-fi-snooping-analysis/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/bbc-tv-licence-v...
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  The Wikipedia page states that they can monitor brightness changes through a window and correlate that to a broadcast programme. How they deal with network delays and time shifting is another matter.
  - thatoneuser 7y ago
    That sounds like something that works in theory but not at all in the real world.
    - giobox 7y ago
      The full description sounds like a normal digital camera to be honest, almost as if someone has gone to great verbal lengths to disguise the fact it is simply a camera: "The optical detector in the detector van uses a large lens to collect that light and focus it on to an especially sensitive device, which converts fluctuating light signals into electrical signals, which can be electronically analysed." For many years I had heard that the real enforcement tool was the fact that anyone selling a TV in the UK, like an electrical retailer such as Comet or Currys, had to submit the name and address of the purchaser to the TV Licensing authority. I just did a quick google, and it turns out this really was the case for a really long time! > https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business-and-organisations/tv-dealers-aud18 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business...
      - thatoneuser 7y ago
        TV licensing authority? That sounds unnecessarily dystopian.
        giobox 7y ago
        Really? bizzare. Even the UK TV Licensing authority in the UK calls itself the the "Licensing authority"! Given it has legal enforcement powers and a team to enforce them the term "Authority" is absolutely appropriate. "Since 1991, the BBC, in its role as the relevant licensing authority, has been responsible for collecting and enforcing the TV Licence fee." > https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16
      - abrugsch 7y ago
        This exact thing happened to me when I was a student. In '94 when myself and 6 other first-year students moved into a house, one of the first things we did was get a TV sorted out between us. Renting TV's was still a thing then and doing so was quite viable for a bunch of students who didn't have the disposable cash to just go and buy a TV. "Paul" put his name on the rental agreement. of course we needed the license too so that day we got that sorted too. "George" (there was a John too, and I was sorely disappointed to find there wasn't a Ringo!) arranged it and her name went on the license. a few weeks went by and sure enough we got a visit from the "Detector Van" because Radio Rentals told the licensing authority that we had taken delivery of a TV and of course that didn't match their records of a license holder... never mind that the address was covered and it was a shared house. (not individual apartments) A similar thing happened a couple of years later when I moved in with a bunch of guys who just didn't bother with a license and I was in when a guy with a clipboard of address that didn't have licenses just went door to door checking if there was a TV in use. he had a "detector van" but it was just the output of a database select. For a while the licensing agency even had ads to the effect that "detection" is just the output of a database. Alos youtube is full of people their their harrassment by licencing officials because they don't have a license
Theodores 7y ago
One of those vans with tinted windows would make an awesome camper van. Clearly you would be geographically limited to the UK however if that van was quietly parked up somewhere then nobody would suspect someone was sleeping in it. A vintage one would be cool too, probably a bit tricky in headwinds with that weight on the top. You could also watch TV pretty well just by watching what other people had on. Shame LCD flatscreens ended this nonsense. Most people believed the vans were mythical and that they just had a map with a database. The vans - according to some - were fake, just to put fear into people.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

by slg 7y ago

dcminter 7y ago

The vans exist. The implied technology within them not so much. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/bbc-tv-licence-vans-wi-fi-snooping-analysis/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/bbc-tv-licence-v...

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
The Wikipedia page states that they can monitor brightness changes through a window and correlate that to a broadcast programme. How they deal with network delays and time shifting is another matter.
- thatoneuser 7y ago
  That sounds like something that works in theory but not at all in the real world.
  - giobox 7y ago
    The full description sounds like a normal digital camera to be honest, almost as if someone has gone to great verbal lengths to disguise the fact it is simply a camera: "The optical detector in the detector van uses a large lens to collect that light and focus it on to an especially sensitive device, which converts fluctuating light signals into electrical signals, which can be electronically analysed." For many years I had heard that the real enforcement tool was the fact that anyone selling a TV in the UK, like an electrical retailer such as Comet or Currys, had to submit the name and address of the purchaser to the TV Licensing authority. I just did a quick google, and it turns out this really was the case for a really long time! > https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business-and-organisations/tv-dealers-aud18 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business...
    - thatoneuser 7y ago
      TV licensing authority? That sounds unnecessarily dystopian.
      - giobox 7y ago
        Really? bizzare. Even the UK TV Licensing authority in the UK calls itself the the "Licensing authority"! Given it has legal enforcement powers and a team to enforce them the term "Authority" is absolutely appropriate. "Since 1991, the BBC, in its role as the relevant licensing authority, has been responsible for collecting and enforcing the TV Licence fee." > https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16
    - abrugsch 7y ago
      This exact thing happened to me when I was a student. In '94 when myself and 6 other first-year students moved into a house, one of the first things we did was get a TV sorted out between us. Renting TV's was still a thing then and doing so was quite viable for a bunch of students who didn't have the disposable cash to just go and buy a TV. "Paul" put his name on the rental agreement. of course we needed the license too so that day we got that sorted too. "George" (there was a John too, and I was sorely disappointed to find there wasn't a Ringo!) arranged it and her name went on the license. a few weeks went by and sure enough we got a visit from the "Detector Van" because Radio Rentals told the licensing authority that we had taken delivery of a TV and of course that didn't match their records of a license holder... never mind that the address was covered and it was a shared house. (not individual apartments) A similar thing happened a couple of years later when I moved in with a bunch of guys who just didn't bother with a license and I was in when a guy with a clipboard of address that didn't have licenses just went door to door checking if there was a TV in use. he had a "detector van" but it was just the output of a database select. For a while the licensing agency even had ads to the effect that "detection" is just the output of a database. Alos youtube is full of people their their harrassment by licencing officials because they don't have a license

Theodores 7y ago

One of those vans with tinted windows would make an awesome camper van. Clearly you would be geographically limited to the UK however if that van was quietly parked up somewhere then nobody would suspect someone was sleeping in it. A vintage one would be cool too, probably a bit tricky in headwinds with that weight on the top. You could also watch TV pretty well just by watching what other people had on. Shame LCD flatscreens ended this nonsense. Most people believed the vans were mythical and that they just had a map with a database. The vans - according to some - were fake, just to put fear into people.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]