The next World Cup in Qatar 2022, which has been baptized by Amnesty International as the World Cup of Shame, will begin on November 20 in Qatar, a country that violates different human rights.
Some teams have shown their concern about what is happening in the Arab country, others have not made any explicit mention of the situation of women, homosexuals or the many lives that have been lost building the stadiums in which the prestigious tournament will be held .
If the World Cup is already controversial in itself, now it has been joined by the obligation to install two apps on the mobile with which the Qatari authorities will have access not only to the data of the attendees, but also the ability to edit and delete them at will. your whim.
Security officials at Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), a Norwegian government-owned media company, have revealed that everyone attending the upcoming World Cup - fans, players and workers - will need to download Ehteraz and Hayya. And it doesn't seem like a very good idea, since spyware has been found on both.
Ehteraz is a necessary covid-19 tracking app for everyone over 18 years old. Instead, Hayya, which is an official app, allows World Cup attendees to follow the tournament schedule and have their tickets digitized as well as access the Qatar metro for free. "It's not my job to give travel advice, but personally, I would never bring my mobile phone on a visit to Qatar," said Øyvind Vasaasen, the company's head of security.
As NRK explains, Ehteraz asks for access to "several rights over your mobile". For example, if the permissions are accepted, access is given "to read, delete or change all the contents of the phone, as well as access to connect to WiFi and Bluetooth, override other applications and prevent the phone from turning off in sleep mode ". But this is not all: you will also know where everyone is at all times, you will be able to make calls and you will have the possibility to deactivate the screen lock. For example, if a photo is taken of something that Qatar is not interested in seeing, they will be able to delete it remotely.
Hayya isn't as intrusive, but she's not exactly a saint. According to the Norwegian company, the official app asks for access to share personal information with hardly any restrictions. In parallel, it provides access to determine the exact location of the phone, can prevent the device from going to sleep, and can also view the phone's network connections.
According to Vasaasen, the Qatari authorities gain almost total control over the content of fans' mobiles once these two apps are installed. "You give the people who control the apps the ability to read and change things and adjust them. They also have the opportunity to retrieve information from other apps if they have the ability to do so, and we think they do." .
As Vasaasen explains, accepting all these permissions is like giving the keys to your house: "You're saying it's perfectly fine for the authorities to come into your house. They have a key and they can come in. You don't know what they're doing there. They say that they may not take the opportunity, but you're giving them the opportunity. And what is worse: nothing can be done to eliminate the obtained data.
Fans have obviously already started downloading these apps. As of October 17, according to Doha News, 75% of World Cup ticket holders had already done their homework by downloading both apps. This would have been a mistake on the part of the attendees, since it is also not known how Qatar will control that everyone has installed these apps.
In this sense, security experts have explained to SpiceWorks that in Saudi Arabia, which has similar control measures, there is not too much control. So it's best to wait until you get to the host country and check that checks are actually being made to see who has them installed and who doesn't.
