The National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart – the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – are hacking into “leaky” cell phone applications to supplement the data they harvest from wireless providers.
Among the hacked apps? Angry Birds … which has been downloaded an estimated 1.7 billion times.
The latest government surveillance revelations were exposed by – who else – heroic whistleblower Edward Snowden, who provided documents outlining the data theft to The (U.K.) Guardian, The New York Times and ProPublica.
“The data pouring onto communication networks from the new generation of iPhone and Android apps ranges from phone model and screen size to personal details such as age, gender and location,” The (U.K.) Guardian reported. “Some apps, the documents state, can share users’ most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in the material even sends specific sexual preferences such as whether or not the user may be a swinger.”
The NSA and GCHQ are also using Google Maps to track users’ locations.
The news that popular apps like Angry Birds are being exploited made the creators of the game … well, angry.
“Our fans’ trust is the most important thing for us and we take privacy extremely seriously,” Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Entertainment said in a statement. “We do not collaborate, collude, or share data with spy agencies anywhere in the world.”
Hed added that his company would “have to re-evaluate working with these networks if they are being used for spying purposes.”
Good …
With each revelation, the reach of government into our private lives grows deeper … and despite U.S. President Barack Obama’s rhetoric to the contrary, nobody is doing anything to stop it.
20 comments
I was hoping they would notice my unmatched ability to get booty.
Yeah, well… a hot little female NSA agent contacted me for a date. She’s Asian… a real cutie pie too. She loves it when I talk politics to her before sex.
A congressman’s wife was feeling neglected. She asks her husband if he can discuss something other than politics with her, like sex for instance. “OK,” replies the congressman, ” Have you ever wondered how many times a week the president gets laid?”
…so had she?
“a hot little female NSA agent … a real cutie pie ”
Max, she may be the one I had an encounter with, and will post the details here later — I’ve got to look through my diaries to refresh my memory.
She said I was her first circumcised lover… so there’s that.
Two guys were standing at adjacent urinals when one says to the other, “I’ll bet you were born in
Charleston, SC.”
“Why, that’s right,” said the other guy in surprise.
“And I’ll bet that you were circumcised when you were three days old.”
“Right again, but how’d you —-“
“And I’ll bet it was done by old Doc Sternberg.”
“Well, yes, but how did you know?” asked the second guy in amazement.
“Well, Old Doc always cut them at a sixty-degree angle,” explained the first guy, “and you’re pissing on my shoe.”
Cruising the gay bars?
You looking to get your booty tapped?
Does this mean Alec Baldwin is a mole?
This was news, when The Blaze reported it days ago. Seriously Will, you used to be on top of things. More and more you are ripping stories from other website and the MSM.
Witness the fact that The State scooped you on the latest Andy Patrick story – http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/28/3232061/rep-andy-patrick-suspends-superintendent.html
You want to be a reporter? Do some actual reporting for a change.
I read about Smith and Wesson deciding to forget about guns for California, as well as the recent Republican health care reform proposal, and was wondering if/when FITS would even comment on those stories. Guess not?
Makes more room for repostings from various politicians or Rich-affiliated groups, I suppose. Oh boy.
And yet they did nothing with the information given to them by Russia intelligence about Flashbang and Speedbump before the Boston Marathon bombing. Nothing. Not a single terrorist has been nabbed by this program. I can assume it is not intended for preventing terrorism, but is intended to further the totalitarian state that is Obama’s transformed America.
Clinton had Bin Laden in the cross-hairs BEFORE 9-11. OBL was handed to Clinton on a silver platter…but he feared being criticized for not following due process…so he balked…
3,000 innocent people paid for it…so I’m sure Obama is only following procedure for democrats, and the media never says a word, no matter how many die at their incompetence.
People are still pretending the NSA is doing anything it does to stop terrorism?
Angry Birds players can hardly be considered a fertile field for info valuable to NSA.
If only Alfred Hitchcock were still with us….
What I’m surprised at is that anyone is surprised that anything they do on a PC or cell phone is somehow private.
This reminds me of the game show scandals in the 50’s and everyone was so shocked to hear they were rigged.
WARNING! — NSA is using Microsoft Windows security updates to operating system software to spy on Americans.
This is not a real surprise, either….