Like other public figures, footballers are among the victims of espionage and virtual voyeurism
Numerous politicians and other influential individuals have been spied on through ‘Pegasus’. But you don’t need such sophisticated “spyware” to gain access to someone else’s electronic device. There are detectives that offer services to detect a possible infidelity of the couple in the email, companies that promote software to monitor employees via their terminals or hackers that clone another phone for 200 euros so that a third party party has remote access to all of its content.
Among the victims are football players. In 2020, Russian gamer Artem Dzyuba saw a solo sex video leaked online. The coach separated him from the selection. Worse was soccer star Leigh Nicol who fell into depression after someone hacked into her iCloud account, accessed intimate photos and distributed them on adult websites. She is convinced that the images quickly went viral just because she was a football player. He had to leave social networks because about 300 men a day offered obscene niceties to him. No club wanted to sign her. Only Crystal Palace after a while offered him to return to his profession and turn the page.
Sometimes access to sensitive information is for blackmail. In 2021, five people – including Karim Benzema, who also appears to have played a role – have been convicted of the attempted extortion of player Mathieu Valbuena. One of them, whom Valbuena entrusted to recover the data from his damaged mobile, found a sexual video and unsuccessfully tried to make the player pay 150,000 euros for not broadcasting it.
But these crimes are not just committed by isolated opportunists. Sometimes there are powerful institutions behind it. The best-selling English-language newspaper ‘News of the World’, by Rupert Murdoch, hacked into the cell phones of a long list of celebrities, including football players like Beckham or Ashley Cole. The group that owns the tabloids ‘Daily Mirror’ and ‘Sunday Mirror’ did the same. Justice showed that Paul Gascoigne, the most talented player of his generation, was spied on for ten years between 2000 and 2010 and that at least 18 newspaper articles were written with information from those punctures. During the trial, Gascoigne said the knowledge that he was being watched made him paranoid: he was afraid to even talk to his relatives, he changed cell phones five or six times a month, and he even attributed his alcoholism to that persecution. He wasn’t the only player to be spied on. Blackburn Rovers star Garry Flitcroft has always maintained that his phone was hacked by journalists, exposing his extramarital affairs.
In general, we are unsympathetic to attacks on the privacy of public figures, especially if they make a lot of money and lead an enviable life, such as football players. Perhaps also because, essentially, these cases show that people love nothing more than to sniff other people’s secrets, especially those of a famous person. The audio of Piqué and Rubiales brought to light their shady dealings, but given the echo this news got, they also revealed that we all have a voyeur in us.
Nearly 70 years ago, Hitchcock reflected in ‘Rear Window’ the fascination we experience with the intimacy of our fellow human beings. It’s okay to give in to that very human need. But putting myself in the footballer’s shoes, I understand that some develop a certain psychosis – another legendary Hitchcock title -: they have multiple cell phones, they distrust every unknown call, they avoid compromising comments on WhatsApp. Even footballers’ partners are at a loss, with more than one claiming to have been hacked.
I’m going to talk to Benito Zambrano so he can consider a ‘remake’ of Hitchcock’s classic, ‘Indiscreet Screen’. They protest against the misuse of mobile phones, the evil of cyber criminals and bad journalism. And I agree. But what part do ordinary citizens play in this film, who like to take a gossip look at what is hidden not behind the curtains but behind each person’s mobile phone? Without us there would be no business. We should play the lead. Because any invasion of footballers’ privacy reveals more about us than it does about them.
Source: La Verdad
I’m an experienced news author and editor based in New York City. I specialize in covering healthcare news stories for Today Times Live, helping to keep readers informed on the latest developments related to the industry. I have a deep understanding of medical topics, including emerging treatments and drugs, the changing laws that regulate healthcare providers, and other matters that affect public health.
