submitted 1 year ago by Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hello all, my apartment has been selected by Nielsen to participate in their program. We don't really watch much TV but the min is 1h/month and we get something like $500 in the first 2-3 months, so that's my incentive to say yes. My concern is of course letting Nielsen know that some of the movies/shows I watch were pirated.

I've talked with one of their techs and this is how it's setup: They hook up a box to my AP, connect it to the network, then mount two RF scanning devices to each TV to listen for hidden broadcast signals and to confirm who is watching by having us check-in with a remote-like device. Then they make sure my TVs/streaming devices are on the same network as their box, and they somehow link them via MAC addresses. Nothing is connected to phones or PCs.

Here's my setup: I'll have a guest network created for the box and I'll move the TVs/streaming devices over to that network when I want Nielsen to see what I'm watching. Everything else is on the main network, and I use VPNs on my PCs and phones anyways. I also have a remote server I connect to via a different AP which has a WG tunnel. From this server I stream movies/TV shows via JellyFin, and when I want to connect to it I switch the TVs wifi connection over to the WG AP.

My concerns:

Can Nielsen see what I'm doing regardless of what network my TVs/Streaming devices are on, due to them having the MAC addresses and everything of course going out via my ISPs WAN?

Does it matter if they detect pirated content? I've heard it doesn't but these things can change I'm sure, and I am in a country where you can get in trouble.

If I were to change networks on my TVs/streaming devices will their box complain? This is something I plan on asking the tech when I talk to him next.

It's hard to find much info on the subject that isn't dated as Nielsen has changed how there setup works in the last few years.

Thank you fellow crew members and Cheers!

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[-] rizoid@midwest.social 22 points 1 year ago

If you're pirating stuff I wouldn't let a data collection group just set shit up in your apartment. No idea what they know but imo it isn't worth the risk.

[-] Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

I agree, if I can't be sure the data I care about is inaccessible I won't go through with it. I'll be asking the tech more questions so hopefully I can learn more from him.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

So if your network gear had the ability to set up vlans, I would put anything you care about on an entirely different subnet, with a VPN going out of that vlan before it hits your primary gateway lan (ie, if your default network is 192.168.1.1, set up a new vlan that is 192.168.10.1 and ensure your vpn captures all traffic from that vlan before heading out). Make sure your server is connected only to that vlan as well. That should isolate your traffic effectively to keep it away from prying eyes. While they have their spy box hooked up, make sure any access to the VPNd vlan is hardwired with no wifi access. Otherwise, pick up a separate router, and do the same thing with a VPN.

[-] Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the input! I believe I may already be running a vlan via the second router connected to my server, I called them APs in the post, but I'll explain the setup in more detail here.

I have two routers(both Gl.iNet), one is remote and there is a WireGuard Server running on it. This router goes out directly to the WAN. Connected physically to that router is my server which is where I both torrent and store my media. I use a VPN on the server with RDP and JellyFin whitelisted so I can connect remotely. The second router is connected to my ISPs router and is running as a WireGuard client to that WireGuard server. Unfortunately I cannot both run the WG VPN and another VPN on the router(s) at the same time. When I want to connect to my server via RDP I switch the wifi on my PC from the ISPs router to my WG client router, or when I want to watch a movie I switch my TV's wifi to the WireGuard router.

I believe Nielsen would be able to see what I was streaming over the WireGuard tunnel, but if I wasn't torrenting on the server while streaming, they wouldn't be able to see anything potentially illegal, only that the media is not coming from a legit source.

Let me know what you think about my setup, one issue I noted is that Nielsen might complain when I switch the wifi networks on my TV.

[-] shortwizard@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I have no actual knowledge on this but - I'm curious how you were picked for this program?

[-] Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago

They seem to cut out chunks of ~5000 homes and then choose one home to represent that group. Pretty dumb imo, but they say when you look at it big-picture it's more accurate. If I said no they would just randomly pick another home in my area. I think they do use ethnic demographics in selecting their groups, but they don't look into who actually lives in the home they pick. They state they don't know anything more than what we happen to be watching, and they can only use data that's linked to some kind of service like Netflix or YT-TV. As far as who's watching, they get your ethnicity, age range and sex. On their remote you're just 'Person 1' or 'Person 2', etc.

[-] Stormcrow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

UPDATE: I spoke with the tech from Nielsen and their equipment won't work properly if I change the wifi on any of my TVs or streaming devices, so they've offered to install their older setup which is just a device connected to the TVs that picks up the audio codes in any media playing on the device. No network access, they just won't find any code in my movies/TV shows.

If anyone sees any possible issues with this setup let me know, cheers!