The 2022 Qatar World Cup has given, gives and will continue to give people talk for being one of the most controversial football World Cups in memory. The local politics It is one of the points that was already generating the greatest conflict and now some strange requirements are added in the form of applications.
This atypical championship that will begin its journey on November 20, also an atypical date, will require that everyone who wants to travel to the country has to install two spy apps. Obviously, from Qatar they don’t classify it that way, but if we analyze a little what these apps hide, we find that it is spyware.
Giving away all our data in exchange for attending football matches
Etheraz and Hayya, the two suspicious apps in the Qatar 2022 World Cup
According to security experts such as those from NRK, Qatar will require the installation of two applications on the smartphones of anyone who visits the country in these upcoming World Cup dates. And they are two tools that dark shadows await, despite being disguised as useful tools.
The first one is called Ehteraz. It is developed by the Government of Qatar itself and its objective is intended to be the tracing of COVID-19 in the purest style of our already extinct COVID Radar.
The dark side of Etheraz is not really hidden, as its own privacy policies show that ask for a lot of suspicious logins for what an app of this type should be. Among others, the possibility of reading and deleting the contents of the mobile, connecting to WiFi and Bluetooth networks, preventing the mobile from going to sleep and even accessing the location and disabling the screen lock.
Hayya is the other app, in which case presupposed as a utility to obtain information on matches that are disputed and even access the subway. It is the official app of the World Cup, so you would not imagine a cloudy background in it. But yes, it has.
Although Hayya seems to have less potential for meddling than Etheraz, odd usage requirements can also be seen. For example, request access to location, to share personal information without restriction. Though the most serious thing is not being able to send a request to delete our datawhich they can receive even without a secure connection.
It is not clear how mandatory these apps are and whether smartphones are going to be checked or not. In any case, it is better to be cautious and take a secondary mobile.
In principle, these applications should be available to all those who enter the country. Therefore, it would not only apply to fans, but also to soccer players, technicians, members of the press and other workers. Though it is not known to what extent it will be mandatory and how it will be reviewed.
It is not known to date whether or not the smartphones of all those who land there will be checked. This is also the opinion of other security experts who even expose cases of acquaintances in Saudi Arabia, a neighboring country with similar requirements and in which they are aware that it is not usual for smartphones to be checked.
Therefore, and at the expense of the crowd beginning to arrive in Qatar, we do not know what the protocol of action of its authorities will be in this regard. Being cautious, and as absurd as it sounds, It is best to bring another mobile that is not the usual and with as little information as possible. This will prevent access to personal data.
