The Infinite Brief

The app has been downloaded more than 10 million times, according to data from Google and Apple.

Once the user gives the app consent to use the phone’s microphone, La Liga remotely activates the mic and attempts to detect if the surroundings sound like a bar or other public establishment that might be showing their games without paying for broadcasting rights.

Liga de Fútbol Profesional clarifies that “nobody accesses the audio fragments captured by the microphone” since the sound “automatically becomes a signal, a binary code.” A computer system can detect fraudulent activity “without storing any recording or content.”

The app is used only in Spain and “only against public piracy,” says La Liga, “which causes us losses of more than 150 million euros.”