The European Union is alerting football fans around the world traveling to Qatar to watch the World Cup about the download and install the official application of the World Cup in Qatar 2022 on their iPhones and other devices. The reason? The privacy risks that this involves all users, as indicated by the Chief Data Protection Officer of the European Union.
Major sporting events, such as the World Cup, usually launch their own official app so host country visitors and fans can organize their travel, locate venues or anything else they need during the event. Normally there are no problems with these apps, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with the official World Cup in Qatar 2022.
European Union data protection regulators warn against number of risks that the installation of this application on our devices entails for the confidentiality of our data and that these are compromised. These alerts come from Germany, where the app’s own data collection goes well beyond what the privacy information you accept indicates.
The app would also collect information from phone numbers called from the device, including your own phone number if you are a user. It is also mentioned that it prevents the device from going into “sleep mode”: It is also obvious that the data is not only used internally in the application, but is transmitted to a central server. Regulators added last Tuesday.
Germany directly recommend users use the application only if they deem it strictly necessary and that, where possible, they use it on another device parallel to the staff so as not to compromise your personal information. Norway, for its part, has also issued an alert to its citizens informing that those who visit Qatar and use the application, could be monitored by the Qatari authorities. France also asks caution with the photos and videos taken during the stay In addition to offering to delete applications as soon as possible.
At this time, neither the Qatari government nor Apple or Google have commented on the matter, but This only stains and creates (even) more controversy on the World Cup taking place in Qatar.
