The popular game has been downloaded 1.7 billion times. But did you know that US and British spy agencies can routinely gain access to personal data from Angry Birds and other mobile applications? The mobile app enables spies to access your location, check websites you have visited, access your contacts and your gaming and social networking applications. The agencies deny all however documents leaked by Edward Snowden, an American computer specialist and former CIA employee, prove that this information is true.
Later the NSA stated that the rumours were true but
they were not interested in data beyond “valid foreign intelligence targets”.
However in some cases, the intelligence agencies appear to have been hacking
into the companies – for instance their internal data links – without knowledge
or permission.
In the latest case concerning the Angry Birds and
Squeaky Dolphin apps it appears that the NSA and GCHQ are effectively taking
details off customer data that the companys' designing softwares – whether Rovio or
Google – collect themselves and without the companies knowing.
The report, published by the New York Times,
ProPublica and The Guardian says that the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ have worked
together since 2007 to develop ways to gain access to information from
applications for mobile phones and tablets.
One 2008 document from the British intelligence agency
is quoted as saying that the joint spying programme “effectively means that
anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ
system”.
Other applications mentioned by the documents include
the photo-sharing site Flickr, movie-based social network Flixster and
applications that connect to Facebook.
So the next time you use an application, think about
all the data you are giving away.
Virginia Mitreva
year 8
Virginia Mitreva
year 8
