As you and millions of other sports fans flock to Paris to watch the Olympics from the stadium, forget about the tickets: you’ll likely pay a high price for your privacy.
Most apps for the Paris 2024 Olympics are tracking users, harvesting private data and sharing it with advertisers and big tech companies, according to worrying findings from A study on 12 Android applications designed to help users during their visit to the Olympic Games and their stay in Paris.
While the best VPN services can protect your privacy when connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi networks, they can’t prevent data-hungry apps from abusing your data. Keep reading, and I’ll explain what’s at stake and what you can do.
Beware of dangerous permissions
As previously mentioned, researchers analyzed twelve Android apps relevant to the Paris Olympics to determine how these apps access and collect user data.
Cybernews security researcher Mantas Kasiliauskis commented on the findings: “We found that apps designed to help you during the Olympics underreport their data collection scope in the Google Play Store, request excessively dangerous permissions, and share sensitive user data with advertisers.”
Unsurprisingly, a travel app (Bonjour RATP) was the most data-hungry, with 18 data points collected. Collecting precise location data is especially important. While the app needs this information to fulfill its functionality, Bonjour RATP also shares the user’s location “for stated purposes of advertising, fraud prevention, security, and compliance,” researchers noted.
Two apps developed specifically for the Olympic Games (the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paris 2024 Public Transport apps) are also among the least privacy-friendly apps.
That’s quite significant, considering the app for the Paris 2024 Olympics alone has been downloaded more than 10 million times. In addition to collecting and sharing sensitive data like browsing history, email addresses, devices, and other IDs, the app also asks for multiple dangerous permissions. According to researchers, “these allow you to tap into the deepest secrets you can hide on your Android phone.”
Cybernews contacted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about this. They admitted that they track users’ personal data to build user profiles and share data with advertisers, including Facebook, Google, Apple and X.
“When necessary, users will be asked to grant permissions for specific features to improve their app experience,” the IOC told Cybernews. Users can change the permissions they have granted through device and app settings at any time.
In addition to data location, researchers found that the most popular and dangerous permission is storage access. This means that 7 out of 12 apps tested want to read and write files on your device. This can put your privacy at risk, as the apps are allowed to monitor and modify all of your files.
Half of the apps analyzed also wanted access to your camera. This is dangerous, because there is a risk that the apps take photos and record videos without the user’s permission.
As Cybernews researchers noted, camera access has many legitimate uses – think scanning QR codes on tickets or credit cards, authentication, taking selfies, and so on. Still, it’s crucial to ensure that cameras are only used for their stated purposes in order to fulfill their functionality.
“The app should help you enjoy the Olympics, but it shouldn’t need to know your entire life story or what websites you visit to do that,” Kasiliauskis said. “This is concerning, given the stated intentions to build detailed user profiles and share data with tech giants. Unfortunately, invasive data collection is a long-standing trend in the industry, and many apps try to collect more data than they need.”
How to Stay Safe When Using Apps for the Paris 2024 Olympics
While you may not be able to avoid certain useful apps during the Olympics, there are still things you can do to increase your privacy when using them.
For starters, you should avoid downloading Paris Olympics apps – or any other applications – from third-party websites. Official app stores are your best option to ensure that the applications you install on your device are safe and malware-free.
Did you know?
A virtual private network (VPN) is a security software that encrypts internet connections and spoofs your IP address. In addition to increasing your privacy when browsing on public networks, it can also be useful when you’re traveling. Here are four reasons to use a VPN when you’re visiting the Olympics.
I also recommend taking the time to read the app’s privacy policy before downloading it. I know it sounds boring, but it’s important to know what you’re signing up for.
Once you have all the Paris Olympics apps you need, it’s time to review the permissions you grant to each app. To do this, Kasiliauskis suggests using the “principle of least privilege.”
He said: “If there is no clear need, do not give consent. If the consent is no longer needed, revoke it. The apps should only require essential permissions for their functionality. However, multiple researchers reveal that they often ask for excessive permissions.”
Finally, you should avoid using your social network profile to log in, to prevent the app from collecting information from the account and vice versa. Also, remember to delete all the Paris Olympics apps as soon as you get home. You don’t have to risk your privacy for an application that you will probably never use again.
