UK DATA REGULATOR OPENS AN INVESTIGATION AGAINST QATAR WORLD CUP APPS

Sun 11 December 2022:

UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a data watchdog has opened an investigation into two official World Cup apps over the concerns that Qatari authorities may be using the apps to secretly spy on England fans.

“If anyone is concerned about how their data has been handled, they can make a complaint to the ICO,” said a spokesman of the public body.

English fans travelling to Qatar have been mandated to download the ‘Ehteraz’ and ‘Hayya’ apps to allow access to the stadiums and Covid contact tracing.

Countries such as Norway and France have already issued advisories to travellers to use the apps on a separate blank phone rather than the one they use for their personal use.

The BfDI watchdog in Germany has asserted that Qatari authorities are not coming clean on the kind of data they are harvesting and that there is a ‘central server’ where the data is being transferred.

“Among other things, one of the apps collects data on whether and with which number a telephone call is made. The other app actively prevents the device on which it is installed from going into sleep mode.”

“It is also obvious that the data used by the apps not only remain locally on the device, but are also transmitted to a central server.”

The Qatar World Cup is heading towards its business end. The semifinals begin on Tuesday with the final scheduled for Sunday, next week.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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