Qatar is the first Arabic country that will host World Cup and also this year is an exception for World Cup since it will be done in winter. It will be hosted from 20th of November to 18th of December.
Surely, World Cup is one of the biggest sport organizations in the world and thousands of football fans all over the world are planning to join this organization. However Qatar requires visitors to install two different applications on their mobile phones.
As the news, according to Øyvind Vasaasen, Head of Security at NRK, visitors must not bring their mobile phones to Qatar.
One of the must-install applications is Ehteraz. It is a Covid-19 tracking application and required for visitors older than 18. This application is tracking users’ location. It was used for infected individuals to enforce quarantine during Covid-19 in Qatar. It was also discovered that the app wants permission 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 other must-install application is Hayya. It is an application helping visitors to get their tickets and also giving access to free metro service in Qatar. Similarly, Hayya can get visitors’ location and also view network connections.
It seems like with installing these two applications, you give the people who control the apps the ability to read your data in your phone, and control it. It can also give a chance to retrieve information from other applications in the phone.