La Liga app snooping on users to fight football piracy

Software listening in via mobile
microphones in bid to catch bars illegally screening matches

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According to an expose by Spanish media, the snooping software
uses GPS to detect the location of app users during football games,
and listens in via their mobile microphone if they are in a
bar. 

The app uses an algorithm to identify whether the person
is watching a match there, and checks their location to see if it
the bar owner has paid for a licence to broadcast the
game.

A total of around ten million people have downloaded the app,
but it is believed that only users in Spain are affected by the
spying software, according to Trusted Reviews.

La Liga has denied any wrongdoing and said the app will
only access a user’s microphone with their permission, which is
requested when the software is launched for the first
time. 

The app only records audio during La Liga matches using a
sophisticated algorithm that deletes all other audio files, the
league added. 

According to TechCrunch, the snooping feature was uncovered
largely as a result of the introduction of the EU’s General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May. The laws required app creators
to outline what they do with user data “more precisely”.

Trust Reviews says that the software is a “sneaky way” to “rat
out pirates” but that La Liga is “technically doing nothing wrong”,
since it seeks the permission of users before accessing their
phone’s microphone. 

The revelations highlight the piracy problem facing football
leagues worldwide, with La Liga claiming resulting losses of about
€150m (£130m) per year, The Daily Telegraph reports. 

In Britain, the High Court last year granted the Union of
European Football Associations (Uefa) and the English Premier
League  permission to “block illegal football streams”, the
newspaper says.