Qatar 'requires' World Cup visitors to install state-sponsored 'spyware' on their phones

[Puiu]

Soccer balls are also thrown with the hands, bumped with the knees, hit with the head, and caught with the chest. Not very foot-specific if you ask me.

Imagine claiming someone has a complex and then claiming to represent the world and its ownership of a language. He simply is pointing out that American English has been distinct since it left “Great” Britain in 1776, and that there is no longer any ownership of the way Americans speak by the British “empire”.

Also, it appears that more people call it soccer than you think, possibly even a majority of primary English speakers. See the sources on Wikipedia for further reading: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football#Name

Let's end this argument, we can all agree to call it football. And we all know that American football is just the pansy version of rugby anyway.

 

[nismo91]

"I don't know how mandatory this actually is," Schneier commented in his blog. "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."

first, we don't actually know how mandatory it is today, since they have very few cases in the past few months. many other countries have relaxed their check-in apps. even if it is mandatory, you can always bring a burner phone.

"It's not my job to give travel advice, but personally, I would never bring my mobile phone on a visit to Qatar," said Vasaasen.

not a practical advice not to have your phone with you. just buy a cheap $150 android phone and buy a local simcard that's valid for a month. install the spyware on that phone. when you get back wipe the phone and put it on ebay. you could also use your old smartphone too.

if you can afford two-way transatlantic flight to qatar you can certainly afford a burner phone. also if you're privacy paranoid type, bringing a burner phone is just a very small price to pay.

 

[brucek]

That sounds pretty offensive. Then again, even as American, as you come back home, customs asserts it has the right to inspect / image all your data devices for whatever they want too.

I like the burner phone idea, but if you use it to connect to any of your normal services or cloud data, you're giving up the credentials and at least temporary access for that too.

 

[SirDigby]

The whole soccer/ football argument is irrelevant to this news, everyone knows what the article is talking about, be adults.

How do they force you to install the apps? If you were concerned, could you not bring a second cheap android or even an old windows or feature phone and treat that as your main phone upon entry and exit to the country?

There are plenty of apps that warrant unnecessary control over your device, and social media apps users tend to just accept the surveillance anyway...

 

[winjer]

No, 300 million US citizens call it soccer and we always will until we all decide to move to the UK. And we call the boot a trunk and a bonnet a hood. Get over it. The UK stopped being the definitive masters of American English language in 1776 and we like it that way so take your butt-hurt indignation and piss off.

7 billion people call it football.
So guess who is wrong.

 

[tacobravo]

Qatar shouldn't even be hosting the world cup with the country selection process being 100% corrupt. They bribed FIFA to have the world cup in Qatar. Korea and Japan were deemed too small to host so they had to co host but Qatar must be big enough /s.

 

[Totee]

Just to add to this article,
1. Hayya Card is mandatory if you want to: Enter Qatar during WC2022 and Access Stadium
2. You can choose between Hayya App and/or Hayya physical card

If you're going just get a physical card.

 

[Geralt]

It's football not soccer, read the article, it's even mentioned there so Americans can cry harder.

OK, soccer/football, like children.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

And I thought China was bad...

 

[Darth Shiv]

Soccer balls are also thrown with the hands, bumped with the knees, hit with the head, and caught with the chest. Not very foot-specific if you ask me

Vast majority of play is to feet. Majority of goals too.

Also, it appears that more people call it soccer than you think, possibly even a majority of primary English speakers. See the sources on Wikipedia for further reading: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football#Name

This is an interesting point.

On another note, English is such a dog's breakfast of a language. I used to be precious about it rooted in background of academic writing. In anything outside publication it really doesn't matter. The language is garbage. Inconsistent. Roots in many other languages. Borrows bits from everywhere. Not worth getting worked up over on forums or social media!

 

[soulsassassin]

No, 300 million US citizens call it soccer and we always will until we all decide to move to the UK. And we call the boot a trunk and a bonnet a hood. Get over it. The UK stopped being the definitive masters of American English language in 1776 and we like it that way so take your butt-hurt indignation and piss off.

it's not about UK or US or anywhere in the world it's about common sense, the whole sport is literally illustrated in two words Foot-Ball and that's literally what the game is about.

I think you should change the name of another sport the people run around holding the ball which is not exactly a ball an egg shape thing in their hands and ramming each other , I suggest hand-egg

how possibly you can call that football

 

[m3tavision]

its football not soccer / rounded ball kicked around using feet , Foot-ball

unlike another sport

But they play with a soccer ball = soccer.

 

[Avro Arrow]

How was none of this taken into account when Qatar was awarded the World Cup?

Screw it, FIFA should just pull out and hold it somewhere else. With all the broken agreements with Qatar, to allow the tournament to go ahead would be giving a very bad message about how FIFA doesn't actually expect host nations to honour their agreements.

I honestly don't care one way or the other about futbol but I care about how countries treat people.

 

[Looiplooi]

No, 300 million US citizens call it soccer and we always will until we all decide to move to the UK. And we call the boot a trunk and a bonnet a hood. Get over it. The UK stopped being the definitive masters of American English language in 1776 and we like it that way so take your butt-hurt indignation and piss off.

Yes, We also call it Soccer in South Africa becuase we suck at it and we are the best at real mans sport called Rugby

 

[m3tavision]

This type of attitude right here is why everyone hates the US. American tourists are the most hated in the world too. No matter where they go they think they can act like they're home, because hey I'm an American! Oh yeah, 300 million citizens call it soccer? Guess what, the other 7+ billion call it football. So YOU get over it.

PS. American football is bar none the worst sport ever invented. Nobody outside the US even cares about it.

Don't be upset or mad that you only have one sport in your Country while Soccer is seen mostly as a child's sport in America, because they have 4 other National Sports that far exceed Soccer...(National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA) & then Major League Soccer (MLS)...

So growing up in America... why watch/play a child's kickball game, when you have other much more exciting sports to watch/play...?

For perspective, across America every weekend some 70,000 - 115,000 College fans packed into 50+ College Stadiums across the Country to watch College Football..! Which vastly outnumbers the people across the world attending Soccer games.

To put it into perspective, more people in America watch Boxing/MMA than Soccer...

 

[neeyik]

Okay, that's enough with soccer vs football vs everything else argument. Please stick to the topic of the new article, thanks.

 

[m3tavision]

I am wondering if the Formula 1 race attendees next year in Qatar are "required" to install this app too....

 

[neeyik]

I am wondering if the Formula 1 race attendees next year in Qatar are "required" to install this app too....

The Ehteraz app is a requirement for any entry into Qatar.

 

[RudyBob]

" If you were hoping to attend the World Cup in Qatar" Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. No accounting for taste

 

[m3tavision]

A lot of people will just be bringing in their Camera and buying a burner phone then....

 

[Geralt]

I am wondering about the age of my dear forum mates. I am near 60. Anyone else?

 

[Alexmx]

There will be, anyway, millions of idi0ts going to Qatar next month. Soccer is the opprobium of the masses indeed.

The word you were looking was "opium". But I agree, every die-hard fan isn't going to mind being monitored.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Vast majority of play is to feet. Majority of goals too.


This is an interesting point.

On another note, English is such a dog's breakfast of a language. I used to be precious about it rooted in background of academic writing. In anything outside publication it really doesn't matter. The language is garbage. Inconsistent. Roots in many other languages. Borrows bits from everywhere. Not worth getting worked up over on forums or social media!

Lol I know the vast majority of it is using feet, it was kind of a joke. Here in the US, soccer is a core sport and I grew up playing it much of the time during recess. Many people here love it, it just isn't as dear to as many Americans as football, baseball, or basketball.

And of course English is super inconsistent. I find that the more unusual things in life are more interesting. You could come up with metrics that measure how "superior" different languages are, but you're never going to be able to say one language is generally "best". The same thing is probably true of most sports.

The one thing I casually noticed over time when watching subbed movies/shows is that English is probably the most efficient in terms of saying the same thing per syllable. Again this doesn't mean much though because other languages are generally spoken faster (per syllable) and our brains end up processing the information at the same speed.

 

[Alexmx]

How was none of this taken into account when Qatar was awarded the World Cup?

Screw it, FIFA should just pull out and hold it somewhere else. With all the broken agreements with Qatar, to allow the tournament to go ahead would be giving a very bad message about how FIFA doesn't actually expect host nations to honour their agreements.

I honestly don't care one way or the other about futbol but I care about how countries treat people.

Well, for starters, "2019 pandemic" wasn't in almost everyone predictions for year events.

Secondly, you can host your own FIFA world cup if the price is right. Qatar did it and paid both in gold and blood.

Lastly, fvck FIFA and fvck Qatar, they built their stadiums with lots of slave work.

 

[Geralt]

You can go with a cheap crap there but next you have to connect to receive emails, etc. A better solution would be to do a desktop backup of all pics, docs, etc and next have them removed from your phone. In this way, you would go to Qatar with your usual phone but almost empty.