Sorry, people, I've kept this as short as I could. I really need to share some of the steam coming out of my ears, though.
The BBC now wants anybody who uses their iPlayer to log in via a personal account. Perhaps the BBC bigwigs were tossing and turning all night for fear that a few people might be watching iPlayer, despite holding no TV licence. I initially assumed the new measure was to help them snoop on people trying to watch programmes without a TV licence.
The truth seems to be even more creepy.
Visit their site. There's an awful lot of stuff to wade through, but this is probably as apt a starting point as any (mega-url alert):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/why-we-are-asking-you-to-sign-in#!ptrt=http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer...
Essentially, they claim that you need to sign in in order for them to "make the BBC more relevant and personal to you."
Sound familiar? To me, that sounds like the sort of self-serving rubbish in which marketing types try to cloak justifications for their data-slurping.
If it were opt-in, I might accept their claim that this is primarily to "improve the user experience" (my attempt at jargon.) I've been quite happy to watch without a personalised experience in the past, and I would prefer to continue thus.
But no. You "must" log in to use iPlayer.
Browse the explanatory pages. I'd imagine that they'd be safe in assuming that most people simply don't bother, but in keeping themselves legal, they've provided a fair amount of information.
They try to keep you logged in for two years. That's creepy. It seems that they use cookies for this, so unlikely to be a problem if one clears cookies (in this wicked age, I suspect that probably includes "cache" - especially stuff like local storage/dom.storage.)
They set flash cookies. Presumably the best way of avoiding these is to uninstall or to disable Flash Player. As a modern site, I assume it will still work. But either way - if you value your privacy and don't mind having to re-log in every time, and having to remember for yourself how much of a programme you'd watched instead of the Beeb "remembering" it for you - don't forget to clear the flash cookies along with everything else.
Take a look at the outfits they use for third party data exploitation (analysis, marketing and so on):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/cookies/how-does-the-bbc-use-cookies/
It looks as if they're sharing with at least eight, and at least a couple of those are USA-based - which could raise valid concerns about just what data are being stored where.
Worse and worse, though. Have a look at this page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/privacy/how-do-apps-capture-my-data/
Any BBC apps you download to your mobile or TV can access certain data on your device.
Some data gets collected automatically, like:
The types of mobile device you’re using
A “unique identifier” (like the device ID or an IP address)
Info about how our apps are being used.
A "unique identifier"? Is this something set by the app (or cookie technology, if a browser is involved)?
Do they slurp things like computer serial numbers and gadgets' IMEI numbers?
None of that would reassure me that whatever they collect is totally anonymised, nor that it would be impossible for a determined snoop to trace gadgets back to actual owners.
They want your date of birth (although if you're over eighteen, they'll only "keep" the year - it would be interesting to see whether one can complete registration without supplying the whole thing, though - in which case - why?)
They want your postcode.
They want your gender - although you can keep this obfuscated.
Oddly enough, I don't think they ask for your name. Perhaps they hope to get this from your e-mail address - although I would expect folk using a throwaway address to use an alias rather than a real name - surely???
And all this before they'll let you watch their programmes. You never needed to supply this to TV broadcasters (at least, not so far) - could it be anything to do with the fact this is all information of considerable information to the marketing industry? Despite all their claims (you really need to read through it all yourself), I'm not too convinced that they'll never share my data with interested third parties.
If people don't mind that - good for them. I mind it intensely.
Oh, sure, I suppose there's nothing to stop you using a throwaway e-mail address using an alias rather than your own name, nor is there anything to stop you finding a post code far, far away. (At the moment, my ISP conveniently provides me with IP addresses about four or five hundred miles from me - not as a privacy measure, but just because that's where their servers are - I think.) What a hassle, though, just to try to protect your privacy from a formerly respectable and respected corporation.
Quite how all this helps them prevent licence dodging, I've no idea, but they claim that's part of it. TV broadcasters the world over have survived this far despite the small percentage of folk viewing without a licence, and I really couldn't justify intruding on privacy just to shut a few of these down.
Just because something can be done doesn't necessarily mean that it should be done. Proportionality and all that...
Quite where all that leaves me, I'm not sure. I very rarely watch TV, and obviously haven't watched iPlayer since this intrusive measure was introduced. At twelve quid a month or so on the direct debit, the television is an awfully expensive standby monitor. I'm really loath to dispose of it and the video player, though - but it might just make sense to do so and then abandon the licence. I'm getting zero value for it, after all, and really couldn't be bothered making up details to create an anonymous account - which is presumably easily de-anonymised, anyway.
Most horrifying of all, to me, has been the total lack of adverse reaction to the Beeb's introduction of this revolting policy. Have we really all become so fatalistically resigned to our fate that we no longer bother trying, or do people genuinely not think about the implications of this sort of thing?
All very worrying.
I think I need a little walk to reduce the blood pressure...
