UEFA ticket app shares user location data with police authorities
The UEFA ticket app required for stadium admission tracks users and shares their location with police authorities. However, the app stores do not mention this.
(Image: Csaba Peterdi/Shutterstock.com)
To enter a stadium for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany, visitors must have a digital ticket, which is provided and managed via the official UEFA ticket app. This app requires access to some personal data. What is not mentioned in the Apple and Google app stores is that the app shares the location of ticket holders with police authorities.
This is shown in a report by Bayerischer Rundfunk about risk fans, which only mentions this point in passing (from 0:52). According to the report, the UEFA ticket app sends anonymized user location data to local authorities at any time so that they can monitor the movements of larger groups of fans, for example, primarily for security purposes.
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However, neither the Google Play Store nor the Apple App Store mentions that the UEFA ticket app shares location data. Anyone who installs the app on their smartphone is only informed that personal data such as name, email and telephone number is collected and that app activities are shared, the latter for analysis purposes. There is no mention of shared location data, but users must allow GPS access when installing the app.
No alternative to the ticket app for stadium visits
There is no alternative to the UEFA ticket app; conventional paper-based tickets are no longer available for this European Football Championship. It is not possible to print out the digital ticket, and the smartphone app also prevents screenshots of the ticket. Bluetooth must be activated for admission to the stadium because, in addition to the QR code on the ticket, "Bluetooth technology is used to verify the authenticity of mobile tickets during the admission process", writes Der Spiegel. However, an active internet connection is not required to enter the stadium.
In the BR report, the head of the European Championship Situation Center in Munich, Brigitte Rottberg, shows where fans are gathering and where they are going, as the location data is transmitted live by the ticket app. This enables the authorities to quickly move emergency services to any hotspots. However, it does not show if and when escalations occur. It is also not possible to see who is involved at first, as the location data is transmitted anonymously.
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