[Technology] link your BBC account

[nickbrighton]

So for weeks Alexa has been telling me I will have to link my BBC account to continue to listen to the BBC Radio on the smart speaker

I have been trying to do this for weeks , and finally today I managed to complete the link up, by doing exactly what I have been doing every couple of days for weeks

My question is though, Why do I need to do that? If I had a DAB Radio I wouldnt need to, If I had FM Radio I wouldn't need to

I have to have a BBC Account to watch Iplayer, read the news or sport on my phone or pc.

Iplayer I understand to an extent as it can remember my programmes etc (although it did that before I needed an account) but WTF do I need an account to listen to free to air radio.

I can see no reason why I have to have an account to listen to radio, its just another log in and password to remember, for an account that has zero financial, personal, or any other info that needs protecting- unless you count what TV and Radio shows I watch or have on (Ill admit it -I like masterchef and Radio 2) The only private info it has is my email and password which are now hackable

Its just another in an ever increasing list of unnecessary layers of security and info gathering that just pisses off more and more people

 

[Is it PotG?]

Hardly life changing, making up a username and password.

 

[Springal]

So for weeks Alexa has been telling me I will have to link my BBC account to continue to listen to the BBC Radio on the smart speaker

I have been trying to do this for weeks , and finally today I managed to complete the link up, by doing exactly what I have been doing every couple of days for weeks

My question is though, Why do I need to do that? If I had a DAB Radio I wouldnt need to, If I had FM Radio I wouldn't need to

I have to have a BBC Account to watch Iplayer, read the news or sport on my phone or pc.

Iplayer I understand to an extent as it can remember my programmes etc (although it did that before I needed an account) but WTF do I need an account to listen to free to air radio.

I can see no reason why I have to have an account to listen to radio, its just another log in and password to remember, for an account that has zero financial, personal, or any other info that needs protecting- unless you count what TV and Radio shows I watch or have on (Ill admit it -I like masterchef and Radio 2) The only private info it has is my email and password which are now hackable

Its just another in an ever increasing list of unnecessary layers of security and info gathering that just pisses off more and more people

Why is your email and password now hackable? And even if it was - why do you care if you use a different password for every website etc?

 

[Swansman]

Throw your Alexa thingie out the window, for the sake of mankind. Buy a clock radio. Problem solved.

 

[Brian Fantana]

Throw your Alexa thingie out the window, for the sake of mankind. Buy a clock radio. Problem solved.

This.

I got caught by the initial wave of consumer enthusiasm when they were first released a few years ago, but I ditched it very soon afterwards.

 

[bhafc99]

I did that too, just to stop her blooming nagging me every time I wanted to listen to BBC 6 music, but also failed to see any real reason WHY I should.

There’s so much of this bollocks now. My wife’s Apple account is supposedly the ‘parent’ to those of our two kids, but this seems to have resulted in a web of inter-device authentication approvals and similar nonsense that even the Bletchley Park mob would struggle to untangle.

And I needed to reactivate my BA account login the other day. To do this, they sent me a ‘key’ that was a 24-character long string of random numbers and letters.

“Please remember this key,” the email cheerfully instructed me, “you’ll need it to reactivate your account again in the future.”

It’s at moments like this I feel a growing empathy with Victor Meldrew.

 

[Acker79]

So for weeks Alexa has been telling me I will have to link my BBC account to continue to listen to the BBC Radio on the smart speaker

I have been trying to do this for weeks , and finally today I managed to complete the link up, by doing exactly what I have been doing every couple of days for weeks

My question is though, Why do I need to do that? If I had a DAB Radio I wouldnt need to, If I had FM Radio I wouldn't need to

I have to have a BBC Account to watch Iplayer, read the news or sport on my phone or pc.

Iplayer I understand to an extent as it can remember my programmes etc (although it did that before I needed an account) but WTF do I need an account to listen to free to air radio.

I can see no reason why I have to have an account to listen to radio, its just another log in and password to remember, for an account that has zero financial, personal, or any other info that needs protecting- unless you count what TV and Radio shows I watch or have on (Ill admit it -I like masterchef and Radio 2) The only private info it has is my email and password which are now hackable

Its just another in an ever increasing list of unnecessary layers of security and info gathering that just pisses off more and more people

Isn't it a rights thing? If you're listening to DAB you have to be in broadcast range and so are in the UK. Whereas alexa works on the internet broadcast that could be reached by anyone with an internet connection, but rights (possibly laws?) mean you need to prove you are entitled to listen.

 

[nickbrighton]

Hardly life changing, making up a username and password.

Why is your email and password now hackable? And even if it was - why do you care if you use a different password for every website etc?

No, its not life changing, its at best a minor irritation in this instance and in the world we live in its virtually inconsequential on its own, but it isnt on its own is it?

Its hackable for the very simple reason that its now recorded somewhere else, and my email address is open to a whole new load of unwanted emails.

As for new password for every website, account, app etc that becomes unrealistic quite quickly., unless you do the one thing we are told not to do with passwords-write them down.

How many different passwords can you remember- Netflix, Amazon, NSC,BBC, ITV Hub, more 4, Banks, Football clubs, various s loyalty cards, store cards, any company that now has" convenient on line billing or pay extra for paper bills" , the list is virtually endless , all wanting separate unique passwords containing alphanumeric characters, special characters, one that does't contain words or phrases used before etc.

I doubt many people have completely different passwords for every single account, log in or whatever.

One of the main points about hacking into and getting email and password info from sites that have less security than the financial sites is simply because as necessity people have to use the same email addresses (unless you have an endless supply of email addresses or phone numbers), and variations of the same password for lots of sites. So every site that requires unnecessary log ins is another place hackers can get that info from

 

[nickbrighton]

Isn't it a rights thing? If you're listening to DAB you have to be in broadcast range and so are in the UK. Whereas alexa works on the internet broadcast that could be reached by anyone with an internet connection, but rights (possibly laws?) mean you need to prove you are entitled to listen.

I thought you may be righjt, but then I rmember that on a lot of the "this is radio 1,2, or whatever spiel its always available on FM, DAB, Smart Speaker and around the world on the web" so its not that

 

[LamieRobertson]

I’m going to have words with Alexa …she’s not spoken to me about this

 

[chaileyjem]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/listening-on-a-smart-speaker/sign-in-alexa

 

[Springal]

How many different passwords can you remember- Netflix, Amazon, NSC,BBC, ITV Hub, more 4, Banks, Football clubs, various s loyalty cards, store cards, any company that now has" convenient on line billing or pay extra for paper bills" , the list is virtually endless , all wanting separate unique passwords containing alphanumeric characters, special characters, one that does't contain words or phrases used before etc.

I doubt many people have completely different passwords for every single account, log in or whatever.

IF you use Apple, then IOS or the OS will generate unique secure passwords and save to you 'keyring' so you don't need to remember.
If not Google Chrome will also do the same.
If you want to pay - 1Password will also do similar, and manage across all devices.

The reason we are where we are - is because people use the same passwords, they get hacked, have their credit cards stolen or bank accounts emptied and cry off and someone somewhere has to underwrite that loss so it is not really an excuse these days.

 

[mikeyjh]

I still miss the simplicity of iPlayer radio, replaced by the car crash that is BBC sounds

 

[dadams2k11]

Its hackable for the very simple reason that its now recorded somewhere else, and my email address is open to a whole new load of unwanted emails.

Companies sell your email addresses, and this is where unwanted email come from.(Spam)

As for new password for every website, account, app etc that becomes unrealistic quite quickly., unless you do the one thing we are told not to do with passwords-write them down.

You can get free password managers like KeePass, DashLane, LastPass, or even you browser to store all passwords in one place.

How many different passwords can you remember- Netflix, Amazon, NSC,BBC, ITV Hub, more 4, Banks, Football clubs, various s loyalty cards, store cards, any company that now has" convenient on line billing or pay extra for paper bills" , the list is virtually endless , all wanting separate unique passwords containing alphanumeric characters, special characters, one that does't contain words or phrases used before etc.

I personally use Chrome to store my passwords and use the suggested password option to create a new password. I simply go to the site i want and the details auto populate

I doubt many people have completely different passwords for every single account, log in or whatever.

I have different passwords for different sites, see above. I do have a few variations of the same password, but starting and ending with a different special characters. i.e.. £Password1£, !Password1! £wordPass1£, !wordPass1!. This site (https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/) tells you how long it would take an hacker to crack your password. Try your password starting and ending with a special character, and see how it changes from days to years.

One of the main points about hacking into and getting email and password info from sites that have less security than the financial sites is simply because as necessity people have to use the same email addresses (unless you have an endless supply of email addresses or phone numbers), and variations of the same password for lots of sites. So every site that requires unnecessary log ins is another place hackers can get that info from

Check if you email address has been breached and if there is a pastebin of your credentials here. https://haveibeenpwned.com/.

 

[mikeyjh]

Companies sell your email addresses, and this is where unwanted email come from.(Spam)




You can get free password managers like KeePass, DashLane, LastPass, or even you browser to store all passwords in one place.



I personally use Chrome to store my passwords and use the suggested password option to create a new password. I simply go to the site i want and the details auto populate



I have different passwords for different sites, see above. I do have a few variations of the same password, but starting and ending with a different special characters. i.e.. £Password1£, !Password1! £wordPass1£, !wordPass1!. This site (https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/) tells you how long it would take an hacker to crack your password. Try your password starting and ending with a special character, and see how it changes from days to years.



Check if you email address has been breached and if there is a pastebin of your credentials here. https://haveibeenpwned.com/.

Awesome, my standard few passwords are all into the thousands, my 'main' one 200 million years, I think it's because I use welsh words!

 

[dazzer6666]

Awesome, my standard few passwords are all into the thousands, my 'main' one 200 million years, I think it's because I use welsh words!

....bit shorter now we know that

 

[dadams2k11]

Awesome, my standard few passwords are all into the thousands, my 'main' one 200 million years, I think it's because I use welsh words!

What that site don't account for though is the cracking rigs setup to crack these passwords are using GPU instead of CPU. GPU is a lot faster and if you have a rack of 2080ti GPU's, that time does come down dramatically.

 

[Pretty Plnk Fairy]

i have no problem linking to my BBC account on xhamster

Regards

DF

 

[Igzilla]

Companies sell your email addresses, and this is where unwanted email come from.(Spam)




You can get free password managers like KeePass, DashLane, LastPass, or even you browser to store all passwords in one place.



I personally use Chrome to store my passwords and use the suggested password option to create a new password. I simply go to the site i want and the details auto populate



I have different passwords for different sites, see above. I do have a few variations of the same password, but starting and ending with a different special characters. i.e.. £Password1£, !Password1! £wordPass1£, !wordPass1!. This site (https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/) tells you how long it would take an hacker to crack your password. Try your password starting and ending with a special character, and see how it changes from days to years.



Check if you email address has been breached and if there is a pastebin of your credentials here. https://haveibeenpwned.com/.

I tend to use this site https://passwordsgenerator.net/ to generate most passwords. I checked the one for my Steam account on that security website linked above and came up with 41 Trillion Years to crack.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Hardly life changing, making up a username and password.

It is when you forget it.

Luckily I have all my usernames and passwords printed out and kept in an inside pocket. Or wallet. Or somewhere.