FIFA 2018 is just about to start, but one one of the biggest names in professional soccer has landed itself in hot water. Spanish soccer league La Liga recently admitted to using their official app to catch broadcast pirates in the act of transmitting live games. However, the app didn’t target a pirate directly. It accessed any La Liga user’s phone’s microphone whenever they entered a bar during a Barca or Altetico Madrid soccer match. Activation commenced when the phone’s GPS detected it was in a known pub. It would then listen in to see if that establishment was showing an illegal broadcast of that game.
La Liga claims that what they were doing is perfectly legal, because it’s in their user agreement. That agreement gives the maker permission to access app users’ microphones. However, many are arguing it’s a huge invasion of privacy that makes one wonder, “how many other things is this secret spy phone app listening in on?” La Liga also says that none of the audio is actually recorded. Their app allegedly captures code from the microphone’s data, not conversations.
New Laws Are Protecting People From Abusive Apps Like La Liga
The news of La Liga’s monitoring came to light after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. The GDPR is an EU law that protects data and privacy of all individuals within the European Union. It forced software/app and other tech developers to be more transparent with their terms and conditions. Now, La Liga is officially being investigated by the Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD). We’ll have to wait and see whether they find La Liga’s operations to be illegal or not. In the meantime, it’s a good idea for people to read their user agreements carefully. It may also be wise to to just avoid unnecessary apps altogether.
What do you think about La Liga’s actions? Do you, yourself, use the app? Will you stop using it? Let us know in the comments section down below.
