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The Spanish soccer league's smartphone app, which has been installed by millions of users, uses the microphone and GPS readings of the devices its installed on to report possible instances of streaming piracy by listening. The smartphone app listens to and analyzes the audio in its surroundings to check if one of La Liga’s matches is being played and then pairs that with GPS data to see if that location is an authorized broadcaster and file reports.
Spanish soccer league "La Liga" is using its official Android app to create an army of millions of piracy spies. The app can access microphone and location data to scan for restaurants, bars, and other establishments that broadcast their matches without a license. "Protect your team," La Liga notes, while encouraging users to enable the functionality.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:10PM (16 children)
Or, you know, you could just stop pirating Spanish soccer matches.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:14PM (6 children)
What part of "Spanish soccer league's smartphone app" sounds like pirating to you?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:26PM (5 children)
TFA is about the app catching people pirating Spanish soccer matches. Thus, you turning off the microphone can only be to protect yourself from being discovered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:38PM (1 child)
TFA is about soccer. Thus, you commenting on it can only mean you're a soccer fan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @09:26PM
How did you know I was a soccer fan? Also, I'm a fan of sarcasm.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Osamabobama on Tuesday June 12 2018, @09:48PM
You could also turn off your microphone to protect the sports bar where you are viewing the pirated match. Or to save your battery. Or because you don't trust the app developers to listen in on your daily activities.
But, really, you don't even need a reason.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday June 13 2018, @12:13AM
NO.
They pilfer your mic and location data trying to catch others who are pilfering the games. For example, if you go to a sports bar.
One set of rules for me, another for thee.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by r_a_trip on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:12PM
*** Thus, you turning off the microphone can only be to protect yourself from being discovered. ***
What a meek sheeple position. How about the owner paid for the hardware and the electricity and the data plan and it is not for a two bit soccer organisation to appropriate for their own dubious uses.
If you don't agree, I'll fit you with a non-removable, implanted IP-camera to make sure you do not have sex with persons under the age of consent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:17PM (8 children)
wooosh?
This is about rent collecting, some bars/pubs pirate Spanish soccer matches and show them to patrons.
(Score: 4, Informative) by urza9814 on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:20PM (5 children)
...and about effectively turning random customers into unwitting and unpaid enforcement agents potentially against their will. If that job is so important to them, they can hire their own damn employees to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:25PM (4 children)
No, the customers are willing participants in this - at least for now.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:36PM (2 children)
"Consent" here seems to mean "they accepted the privacy policy." How many users do you really think read every single clause in the privacy policy before installing an app? Accepting such a policy is not the same as agreeing to work for someone.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:46PM
Not to mention how is the function described? Does it say "we'll listen in with your phone's microphone to record all background audio in order to find people pirating our soccer matches"? Or does it say something like "anonymized usage data may be gathered during specific events" which is so nebulous a description as to be useless? Even if someone went through the privacy policy they might still have no real clue how their phone was going to be abused via the app.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @10:09PM
It definitely wasn't clear from the original article. I was feeling optimistic, so I read it as explicit consent to this feature and not something stashed away in some legal text (why else would they "encourage people to enable" it if it was already allowed?). Assuming the other way is probably more realistic.
The Ars [arstechnica.com] article is a bit more clear about how they consent - apparently, it comes up and asks you after this update if it can use the mic/geolocation data. Accepting that is dumb but it doesn't seem terribly misleading, and it does seem opt-in.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:24AM
Possibly with consent. You're sitting at home, and there's a knock at the door. The weather is cold and nasty, and the guy at the door says his car broke down and his cell is dead, can he use your phone? You agree and invite him in. He asks if he can use your bathroom and you agree again. Soon after, a tow truck arrives and off he goes.
A few days later, at 3:00 A.M. you awake thinking you heard a splashing sound. To your surprise you find the stranded motorist taking a bubble bath in YOUR bathtub. He says "I found an open window". Understandably, you demand that he get the hell out before you call the cops.
With a hurt look, he says "but you invited me in and said I could use your bathroom!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @07:24PM
Actually, I was just yanking frojack's chain. He's usually trolling, but when he isn't it's just because he needs to prime his pump.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @11:40PM
Pirate? They're probably showing a visual representation of signals that get sent to every Spaniard, and that every Spaniard, provided he paid the TV tax, could watch for himself.