The European Union alerts world soccer fans who are going to Qatar to watch the World Cup about the download and installation of the official app of the World Cup in Qatar 2022 on their iPhones and other devices. The reason? the privacy risks that this entails all users as reported by the Data Protection Chief of the European Union.
Major sporting events, such as the World Cup, usually launch their own official app so that visitors to the host country and fans can organize their travel, locate venues, or whatever else they need while at the event. Normally, these applications do not pose any problem, but this does not seem to be the case with the official World Cup in Qatar 2022.
European Union data protection regulators are warning about the number of risks that installing this application on our devices has for the privacy of our data and that these are compromised. These alerts come from Germany, where the app's own data collection is reported to go well beyond what the privacy information you agree to indicates.
The app would also be collecting information from the phone numbers that have been 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 app but is being transmitted to a central server. Regulators added last Tuesday.
Germany directly recommends users use the app only if they see it as strictly necessary and that, to the extent possible, they use it on another device parallel to the personal one so as not to compromise your personal information. Norway, for its part, also launched an alert to its citizens informing that those who visit Qatar and use the app, could be monitored by the Qatari authorities. France also calls for caution with photos and videos taken during the stay In addition to proposing to remove the apps as soon as possible.
At the moment, neither the Qatari government, nor Apple or Google have commented on the matter, but This only stains and creates (even) more controversy about the World Cup that is being held in Qatar.