The season after the World Cup will be held in Qatar, a Middle Eastern country famous for the wealth amassed by oil-producing sheikhs, among other things. This contest can be followed from Android phones, but that’s not what we want to talk about in this article, as you can guess from the title.
published as Norwegian Audiovisual Media Corporation (NRK) websiteThere are two apps that must be installed and grabbed Risk to user privacy. The media’s information security expert, Oyvind Vasaasen, said he would not take his mobile phone with him on his trip to Qatar…
Access all your data among other things
![Qatar Football World Cup 2022]( https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/Mundial-de-futbol-de-Qatar-2022.jpg?width=425 425w, https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/Mundial-de-futbol-de-Qatar-2022.jpg?width=800 800w, https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/Mundial-de-futbol-de-Qatar-2022.jpg?width=1200 1200w)
The venue of the next World Cup is Qatar
on paper, They look like two apps that aren’t suspicious at all. On the one hand we have the Ehteraj, which works like the Qatari version of the now defunct radar Covid. On the other hand, there is Haya, the championship’s official application used to maintain control over tickets and access the free metro in Qatar.
Analyzing Ehteraz’s permission, we see that It is quite aggressive. Of particular concern is that it asks for access to read, delete or modify everything on the phone. There are also concerns that it can manage wireless connections and Bluetooth, take control over other apps and Prevent the phone from going to sleep. This app is mandatory for those above 18 years of age.
Haya is not that aggressive, but it has its worrying side. Among other things, ask Permission to share user’s personal information with hardly any restrictions. Moreover, Haya provides access to the exact location of the phone, monitors its network connections and prevents the phone from sleeping.
Oyvind Vasaasen from NRK He is very worried So these apps (especially Ehteraj) are able to:
They can change the contents of your entire phone and have complete control over all the information there. […] When you download these two apps, you agree to the terms of the agreement, and those terms are very generous. You basically hand over all your phone data. You allow app owners to collect information from other apps if they have the ability to do so, and we believe they can.
![This is Ehteraj, a controversial app that all Qatar World Cup participants will be forced to install]( https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/WGp7ka_EvsT_7XC8drlvcQfNBxhoXVeRBu3B_2CFvl_Q.jpeg?width=425 425w, https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/WGp7ka_EvsT_7XC8drlvcQfNBxhoXVeRBu3B_2CFvl_Q.jpeg?width=800 800w, https://cdn.andro4all.com/andro4all/2022/10/WGp7ka_EvsT_7XC8drlvcQfNBxhoXVeRBu3B_2CFvl_Q.jpeg?width=1200 1200w)
Ehteraj, Controversial App
For Norwegian media security experts, this is the case Comparable to providing access to your privacy to competent authorities.
For their part, two independent security firms, Buvet and Mnemonic, were asked to review the apps and both concluded that Anyone who controls these apps can do a lot of damage with it.
In fact, both consider Ehteraz’s existence “a privacy scandal”. This app, in short, can offer anyone who monitors it Information about who the user is associated with.
At NRK they also contacted researcher Naomi Lintvet from the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. If you want to know about these applications, Lintvet Considered highly invasive:
What information they collect and use goes a long way. […] They allow government surveillance and since we are talking about Qatar, that has to be taken into account. This data is of course used for much more than monitoring infections [con COVID-19].
As can be verified, It is almost certain that these apps will collect sensitive data. Nor does it seem, for now, that pressure from the international community will have any effect on the Qatari government’s decision on them.