[Cryptography] TV set power correlates to TV channel?

[Arnold Reinhold]

I think it is worth remembering that in the old days of analog TV, it was quite simple to determine what channel someone’s TV was tuned to. One need only point a directional antenna at their residence and measure the frequency of their TV’s local oscillator. Throughout the last half of the 20th century, vans with yagi’s on top would prowl the streets gathering such information for rating services. In the UK such vans were used to find TV watchers who hadn’t paid the BBC's licensing fee. I’m sure someone must have written an article bemoaning the loss of privacy back then, but no one really cared.

On the other hand real-time-metering can make a big difference in the shift to renewable sources of power. A major issue is the so called Duck Curve, which measures the difference between renewables and overall power demand. At sundown in places like California with lots of solar generation, conventional generating capacity has to come up quickly, which usually means keeping generators spinning before they are needed. Intelligent appliances that can defer demand for short periods, like refrigerators and air conditioning, can help flatten the curve and make these transitions much more energy efficient. TV’s would have a harder time adjusting power consumption dynamically, though overall brightness could be reduced by 25% or so without most viewers noticing. If the price incentives are right, it may become economical to equip TVs with their own batteries and operate them on stored power during peak demand. That could eliminate power correlation to TV channel. 

I think we have more pressing privacy issues, such as the new UK law requiring retention of user browsing data for one year and making it accessible to dozens of government agencies (with the exception of Members of Parliament, whose browsing is only to be seen with the approval of the Prime Minister.) I’d rather focus on things we can fix, like TLS and IoT RNG, and not create a privacy scare about a technology that has a lot of promise and only marginal privacy impact.

Arnold Reinhold