La Liga fined over illegal stream tracking

Spanish football league La Liga has been fined €250,000 for being in violation of data protection laws.

The official La Liga app, it was discovered, was using the location data and microphones of users’ phones in order to track down bars which were illegally broadcasting matches.

The app, which is used by over four million people in Spain for following league news and results, used “audio fingerprints” in order to identify and find establishments which were illegally showing matches.

La Liga has until June 30 to remove the app.

However, La Liga has issued a statement refuting the claims and stating that it will appeal against the decision:
“La Liga disagrees profoundly with this decision, rejects the penalty imposed as unjust, unfounded and disproportionate and considers that the AEPD has not made the necessary efforts to understand how the technology works. “As a result, it will challenge the ruling in court to demonstrate that its actions have always been responsible and in accordance with the law.”

The organisation argued that users were asked twice for consent to microphone access, that it did not store any audio and that human voices would not be able to be deciphered.

La Liga is planning on removing the microphone feature from the app by the deadline, but is determined to not remove it in its entirety.