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Cellphones Privacy Software

Visitors of Qatar World Cup Need To Install Spyware On Their Phone (schneier.com) 110

Posted by BeauHD from the sound-the-alarm dept.
"Everyone visiting Qatar for the World Cup needs to install spyware on their phone," writes security researcher Bruce Schneier. His comments are in response to an article from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), reporting: Everyone traveling to Qatar during the football World Cup will be asked to download two apps called Ehteraz and Hayya. Briefly, Ehteraz is an covid-19 tracking app, while Hayya is an official World Cup app used to keep track of match tickets and to access the free Metro in Qatar. In particular, the covid-19 app Ehteraz asks for access to several rights on your mobile., like access to read, delete or change all content on the phone, as well as access to connect to WiFi and Bluetooth, override other apps and prevent the phone from switching off to sleep mode.

The Ehteraz app, which everyone over 18 coming to Qatar must download, also gets a number of other accesses such as an overview of your exact location, the ability to make direct calls via your phone and the ability to disable your screen lock. The Hayya app does not ask for as much, but also has a number of critical aspects. Among other things, the app asks for access to share your personal information with almost no restrictions. In addition, the Hayya app provides access to determine the phone's exact location, prevent the device from going into sleep mode, and view the phone's network connections. It remains to be seen whether Qatar will strictly enforce the installation of these apps. "I know people who visited Saudi Arabia when that country had a similarly sketchy app requirement," says Schneier. "Some of them just didn't bother downloading the apps, and were never asked about it at the border."
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Visitors of Qatar World Cup Need To Install Spyware On Their Phone More

Visitors of Qatar World Cup Need To Install Spyware On Their Phone

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  • Bring a burner (Score:5, Informative)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @08:31PM (#62978595)

    Good advice for travel to anywhere beyond the bounds of civilization.

    • A burner olde tyme cellular telephone.

    • Re:Bring a burner (Score:4, Funny)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @08:48PM (#62978629)
      The ‘totally not a burner’ sticker is optional. But seriously, isn’t a vanilla phone kinda obvious? That’s why my company, Phonencials, will use the very latest AI and trends favorable to the government you are visiting splashing a vivid acceptable and totally believable social life, political views, and pastimes. Don’t risk getting locked up by getting cocked up, phone in your encials today!

      • So what? If you expect me to install spyware on my phone, you may also expect me to come without anything worth spying on it.

        If you don't, you're stupider than you think I am.

    • Tickets for 49ers at Leviâ(TM)s Stadium are cellphone-only too, and require invasive tracking app installation.

      • Yeah, I'll pass. I don't really gain anything by sitting in cramped seats next to drunk blowhards with beer muscles, just so I can fight traffic on the way home after the game. I can watch the game way more comfortably in my own home.

      • Yah... Well, that pack of bloody backstabbing turncoats were dead to me the day they first set foot in Levi Stadium anyway. All any of them deserve is misery, failure, losing seasons, and career-ending injuries. I've no intention of attending their games until the team moves back to the city and any and every one of the scum who played, supported, administered, or vended down there are purged; or maybe until they at least have the decency to give up the San Francisco name like the original Browns did when

    • Good advice for travel to anywhere beyond the bounds of civilization.

      Beyond the bounds? Before we fly off the map here, mind listing those civilized countries where citizens aren't treated like The Product and Narcissism is considered a heavily controlled drug?

      Let's stop pretending those preloaded apps in the "modern" world act any different, and Bruce just started his blog last week when cybersecurity was invented.

      • Umm... in my country, I'm not required to install applications just to come and go as I please?

        • In the US, it's all baked into the phone already, no app download required.

          • You're free to buy a phone without preinstalled crapware.

            Huh? But it's more expensive? Yes, it is. Or, technically, the crapware-infested phone is cheaper because the companies stuffing it with crapware are paying for it.

            • Ha ha ha ha!

              Oh wait, you're serious, aren't you?

              BAH HA HA HA HA HA!

            • You're free to buy a phone without preinstalled crapware.

              Huh? But it's more expensive? Yes, it is. Or, technically, the crapware-infested phone is cheaper because the companies stuffing it with crapware are paying for it.

              Saying "You're free to buy a phone without preinstalled crapware" to the average Joe or Jane, is at least in the same area code as saying "You're free to buy a unicorn that farts rainbows". The freedom to do it exists, but the capability to do it in any universally practical sense does not.

              • Yes, you have to invest a bit of time and energy into it. Guess what, nobody has any interest to thrust something into your hand if he can't profit from it, you have to take care of it yourself.

      • Considering Qatar's stadium was built with the finest South Asian slave labor, I think we can set aside the usual hair-splitting of what constitutes "civilization".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      However unless you're at high risk just backing up the phone, removing all the social apps etc, then recovering after they've installed their spyware and let you through would be enough and is hardly a difficult process. If I was going anywhere I really didn't trust not to screw me over I'd only take a freshly wiped old phone that I'd wipe again before leaving, this is exactly what we do with staff phones and laptops (which just VPN to devices where work is done) when they travel to a number of countries wh

      • I'd only take a freshly wiped old phone that I'd wipe again before leaving

        But in the mean time, while you're there, they are spying on everything you do. Which is the whole point.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Remember to load it up with innocent but fake data though. If the phone is wiped it might draw suspicion, either that you are hiding something (which is true), or that the phone is new and subject to import taxes.

      I'd just avoid going there entirely. It's not safe for a lot of people.

      • My real phone is full of innocent data too. Some of it just happens to be my real bank account and email logins.

        Not everyone has incriminating antif@ arson manuals stashed away on their home screen, comrade, but no one wants to have random charges for GirlsGoneHijabless appearing on their credit card statement.

    • Or...just don't take a phone.

      • Right, cause I don't get venue, load in, meal, performance, accommodations and logistics information electronically (especially from a foreign country.)

        Thankfully, it's all via carrier pigeon.
        It makes effective communication a breeze!

      • Or .... just don't go.

    • "Good advice for travel to anywhere beyond the bounds of civilization." ...and the US.

  • No exactly Mandatory, maybe. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by youngone ( 975102 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @08:33PM (#62978599)

    Despite what the article says, I don’t know how mandatory this actually is. I know people who visited Saudi Arabia when that country had a similarly sketchy app requirement. Some of them just didn’t bother downloading the apps, and were never asked about it at the border.

    You would think at some point the world's football fans would decide they're not going to support the sleazy corruption of FIFA anymore and stop attending matches in places like Qatar.
    Maybe the FIFA executives don't care either way. I'm assuming they've already been paid.

    • Maybe the FIFA executives don't care either way. I'm assuming they've already been paid.

      The only thing the FIFA executives care about is who paid the most bribe money and provided the best hookers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      You would think at some point the world's football fans would decide they're not going to support the sleazy corruption of FIFA anymore and stop attending matches in places like Qatar.
      Maybe the FIFA executives don't care either way. I'm assuming they've already been paid.

      The world's soccer fans are really into soccer. There's a reason it's the most played sport out there.

      If you want an apt comparison, the NFL is the richest league in the US. US football fans are into the NFL just as much as the rest of the

      • Why attend such events at all? I stopped wanting to get tickets to the championship final a long time ago)) Sports fans can be very aggressive and the laws in another country can be unexpected and cruel. I prefer to watch online broadcasts and place bets there - https://1xbet.com/en/ [1xbet.com] I don't even see the point in paying for a sports cable channel.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Shinobi ( 19308 )

        MLS was not created in response to the FIFA corruption in the way you think. MLS was created as a professional league as a requirement from FIFA in response to the US hosting the World Cup in 1994, trying to position it as equal to Premier League, the top division in the UK(which falls under the UK national association), the german top division Bundesliga, the Spanish La Liga, the italian Serie A, the french Ligue 1 etc, which all technically fall under a national authority. And the US Department of Commerc

      • Do you think I live under a rock? None of that is any secret. (Except for your curious explanation for the existence of MLS).

    • Re:No exactly Mandatory, maybe. (Score:5, Informative)

      by caviare ( 830421 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @10:27PM (#62978801)

      You would think at some point the world's football fans would decide they're not going to support the sleazy corruption of FIFA anymore and stop attending matches in places like Qatar.

      I suspect that you don't know many soccer fans.

    • You would think at some point the world's football fans would decide they're not going to support the sleazy corruption of FIFA anymore and stop attending matches in places like Qatar.

      You don't know much about football fans. Quite a lot of them are utter savages that make places like Qatar look like child's daycare centre. You can walk around in Qatar without issue, yet it's been years since I've attended a bit football match where riot police weren't called.

      Sure that probably says more about my fellow countrym... countryanimals but remember, these people will go to the world cup.

      I sure won't.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Despite what the article says, I don’t know how mandatory this actually is. I know people who visited Saudi Arabia when that country had a similarly sketchy app requirement. Some of them just didn’t bother downloading the apps, and were never asked about it at the border.

      You would think at some point the world's football fans would decide they're not going to support the sleazy corruption of FIFA anymore and stop attending matches in places like Qatar.
      Maybe the FIFA executives don't care either way. I'm assuming they've already been paid.

      The thing about sports fans, particularly "futbol" fans is that whilst they whinge, bitch and moan about everything, they've demonstrated they'll suffer almost any abuse. So all FIFA need to do is ignore the whinging and they can do what they like.

      That being said, I suspect that a lot more fans will be watching WC2022 on TV. When Qatar complains FIFA has the perfect excuse, COVID (despite it being largely over for almost a year), to avoid admitting they made a terrible choice about hosts.

      Its really go

  • I'm going to install it twice!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      Thankfully you don't need to waste your time doing that. They've already implemented an automatic "duplicate shadow install" function that runs after installation!

  • What do they do if you donâ(TM)t have a phone- put you in jail?

    • Thanks for botching my post, have I mentioned how much I hate phones? And computers?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      Send you straight back home, of course. If you're too poor to have a phone that is compatible with their spyware, they don't want you visiting their country!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      I have a phone [ericofon.com].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      They have a backup option - put an implant under your skin, of course. And they're going to track you more closely, because you obviously have something to hide, citizen.

  • Don't take your phone? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jvkjvk ( 102057 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @08:54PM (#62978641)

    Get a burner for cheap and install them on that.

  • Travelling to Middle East is a risk at best (Score:5, Informative)

    by bubblyceiling ( 7940768 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @09:01PM (#62978653)
    An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States https://apnews.com/article/mid... [apnews.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 )

      It's sad that two of the most evil countries in the Middle East are two of America's closest friends. And both are allowed to murder even US citizens with impunity.

    • Sucks for this guy and his family, but why tf would you go to a country you know is thug-ocracy after criticizing it? That's just mind-bogglingly dumb. You're criticizing them for a reason, so don't go there for that same reason.

    • Travelling is a risk if you make it a risk. If you're an outspoken critic publicly criticising the government using your verified credentials, don't travel to the jurisdiction of the government. Meanwhile you, bubblyceiling if that is in fact your real name probably don't have much to worry about. Unless you post your passport number or do something so severe that the saudi government goes out of its way to unmask your identity.

      Obey the laws of the places you visit.

      • Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 âoemild tweetsâ posted on Twitter over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption.

        Sounds like it could be easy for the average social media user to get caught up in it. Very easy when the government is using mass surveillance software

  • boycott boring soccer (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @09:03PM (#62978655) Homepage

    For every nil-all draw in the group stages at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA should donate $1 million to the families of the foreign workers that died building the stadiums.

    There can't have been that many, no?

  • Soccer, aka poverty ball (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @09:25PM (#62978685)

    If I wanted to watch a bunch of guys struggling to score for 90 minutes I would take my buddies to a bar.

  • What is this world cup, and why would anybody go to a hot and dangerous place like the Persian Gulf to watch it?

    Oh I see that TFS mentions "football", but there are many different variations of that game played around the world, with different size and shape of the ball, and restrictions on how you can carry and throw it, number of players, size of the field and so on...

  • I dont have a cellphone.

  • Perfect fucking excuse for these shit countries to do their totalitarian bullshit. I'm not going to any country that requires me to install anything on any of my devices no matter what it does, period. Not because it's accessing my data, or preventing my phone to sleep or whatever, just because it even exists and there's a rule that I have to do it.

    Plenty of things to do on this planet that does not require you to submit to the authorities, and even worse...finance them by giving them your money.

    Ok, everybo

  • If you say that you don't have a phone when you arrive are they really going to search all your bags to check?

    • No, they check your luggage with X-ray scanners.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      As a general principle lying to anyone at a foreign airport security desk or similar is a really bad idea. They might be incredibly unlikely to check but if they do pretty much your best case is you'll spend a few hours being interrogated before getting thrown out of the country with no chance of getting a VISA to go back, no way of claiming anything on insurance etc. Do it in the wrong country, especially if you are from what they consider the wrong country, and you're fucked. If you can afford to fly to Q

  • Pot Meet Kettle (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aisha.Washington ( 4531453 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @03:15AM (#62979267)

    Some of you folks are pretty high and mighty coming from a country with more people locked in cages than any other country in the world, where you cannot carry moderate sums of your own money because, never mind common thieves, law enforcement can and will steal it without ever charging you with a crime. This happens every single solitary day.

    The USA has nothing on the third-world.

    At least in Mexico a bribe will usually get you on your way. In the US, government-backed pirates take it all.

    Despite getting soaked with taxes that approach nations with universal health care, you get squat from your so-called leaders, and they have convinced you to like it. You would rather the deserving politicians and corporations keep that well deserved money.

    The USA is rapidly becoming the third-world of the first-world. Scratch that, it already is, and it’s worse than the third world in some areas. You are just too brainwashed to realize it, and are blinded by your merca fuck yeah propaganda.

    Now bend over and tell us how YOU would never tolerate being forced to install spyware on your phone, but do not mention that you do not even own your phone anymore, the companies that sold them to you tell you what you can do with them, and when, including what you can and cannot on your own personal property.

    You know, cause licensing . Yeah, licensing,

    Can you say mooooo? Oh you know you can.

    • I have to give you a huge "Well said" to that. Unfortunately, you're going to be modded down through the floor for speaking truth to people so fully controlled by propagandists they don't even know there's countries where people otherwise just like them live vastly better lives.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Actually they will get modded down for whataboutism and thread derailing.

        It's typical of this sort of thread, that is specifically about Qatar and the World Cup, that it gets turned enitrely into *yet another* "Whatabout the US" thread, which is if nothing else fucking tedious since about 90% of these sort of threads end up going that way.

    • Clearly the news media in your country is first rate... do you live in Kazakstan? China perhaps?

  • These permissions and, maybe more, are asked by major tech companies yet they're not called spyware

  • No US citizens will travel there.
    They don't even go to their local matches.

  • Many of us are going to boycott it.
  • Qatar is going to get a boat load of tourism money from this, FIFA should step in and prohibit countries with such blatant disregard for invasion of privacy from hosting games. If they really want the tourist's money, they'll relax the fascist programs.
  • Is having a compatible phone now a requirement? What next...detained/imprisoned/kidnapped at border because of incompatible OS?

  • Simple, if you don't want to install this app, don't go.
    Oh, by the way, Qatar isn't a democracy, so don't complain to them.

  • The Arabian peninsula is essentially a medieval monarchy. When you go to a countries like those, you give up all rights & expectations of human decency that we've grown to expect in the modern, developed world. They can cut you up into pieces with a hack saw & put you in a suitcase if they want to & there's nobody who can do anything of any consequence about it. I fuckin' love constitutions, democracy, & rule of law. Unfortunately, there are those in the modern developed world who are campai
  • My only phone is a princess phone that I bought at Goodwill many years ago. It is connected to a land line. All it does is ding when there is a call and allows me to push numbered buttons when I make a call. The extension cord is about 20 feet long, just enough for me to carry the phone to any room in my small house. I am sorry, Qatar, but that extension cord is not long enough to fly to you. So, how do you folks force me to install malware on something that is at least 60 years old and who's extension c

  • We all know the truth about FIFA & fascist shitholes like Qatar.

    So anyone, player or fan, going to this world cup is a moron who is risking their own health and safety. At this point the spyware just seems funny. Hopefully they don't decide you're Otto Warmbier

  • iOS security model doesnâ(TM)t allow for permission requests without use context. You cannot ask for access up front, and thereâ(TM)s no such thing as full access to the phone. This must be an Android thing.
  • Will they go thru all my stuff looking for a nonexistent phone?

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