If you’re going to Qatar for the World Cup, you had better get a burner phone. And don’t take any photos that might fall foul of the Gulf state’s strict morality laws.
France’s influential data protection authority CNIL is telling football fans how they should protect themselves from the Qatar World Cup apps’ snooping.
“Ideally, travel with a blank smartphone … or an old phone that has been reset,” a spokesperson for CNIL told POLITICO.
“Special care should be taken with photos, videos, or digital works that could place you in difficulty with respect to the legislation of the country visited,” the spokesperson said.
Foreigners visiting the country are required to download two mobile applications — the official World Cup app Hayya and Covid-tracking app Ehteraz.
Experts have labeled the apps as a form of spyware because they would provide the Qatari authorities with wide access to people’s data as well as power to read, delete or change content and even to make direct calls.
