Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, David Amram "This Little Light" #OWS Occupy Columbus Circle! 10/22/11. Spy-agencies-scour-phone-apps-for-personal-data. NSA and GCHQ target 'leaky' phone apps like Angry Birds to scoop user data. The National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have been developing capabilities to take advantage of "leaky" smartphone apps, such as the wildly popular Angry Birds game, that transmit users' private information across the internet, according to top secret documents. 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. 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. Many smartphone owners will be unaware of the full extent this information is being shared across the internet, and even the most sophisticated would be unlikely to realise that all of it is available for the spy agencies to collect.
Millennial Media did not respond to a request for comment. Spy Agencies Probe Angry Birds and Other Apps for Personal Data. When a smartphone user opens Angry Birds, the popular game application, and starts slinging birds at chortling green pigs, spy agencies have plotted how to lurk in the background to snatch data revealing the player’s location, age, sex and other personal information, according to secret British intelligence documents.
In their globe-spanning surveillance for terrorism suspects and other targets, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have been trying to exploit a basic byproduct of modern telecommunications: With each new generation of mobile phone technology, ever greater amounts of personal data pour onto networks where spies can pick it up. According to dozens of previously undisclosed classified documents, among the most valuable of those unintended intelligence tools are so-called leaky apps that spew everything from users’ smartphone identification codes to where they have been that day. The scale and the specifics of the data haul are not clear. Detailed Profiles.
Snowden docs reveal British spies snooped on YouTube and Facebook. NBC News has obtained documents Edward Snowden leaked before he came to Russia showing how British intelligence agencies analyze YouTube videos, Facebook 'likes' and tweets By Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Mark Schone, with Glenn Greenwald, Special Contributor The British government can tap into the cables carrying the world’s web traffic at will and spy on what people are doing on some of the world’s most popular social media sites, including YouTube, all without the knowledge or consent of the companies. Documents taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden and obtained by NBC News detail how British cyber spies demonstrated a pilot program to their U.S. partners in 2012 in which they were able to monitor YouTube in real time and collect addresses from the billions of videos watched daily, as well as some user information, for analysis.
At the time the documents were printed, they were also able to spy on Facebook and Twitter. The Guardian via Getty Images. Ggreenwald : Here's the NBC Nightly News... Bof: WAT ANGRY BIRDS EN SPIONNEN MET ELKAAR GEMEEN HEBBEN. Eergisteren schreef The Guardian over de nieuwste Snowden-onthulling: de NSA roomt gegevens van mobiele apps af. Dat is nog een extra reden om terughoudend te zijn met het verzamelen van privé-data door bedrijven. In een presentatie uit 2010 vertellen NSA-medewerkers hoe ze de gegevens van populaire apps zoals Angry Birds onderscheppen. Dat zijn minderzeggende gegevens zoals het model mobiele telefoon, het unieke ID van de telefoon en de softwareversie, maar ook veel rijkere informatie, zoals naam, leeftijd, locatie, geslacht, ethniciteit, burgerlijke staat, sexuele oriëntatie en of je een ‘swinger’ bent. Ze kunnen die gegevens afromen omdat de bedrijven deze gegevens verzamelen met hun app en vervolgens over het internet sturen, vaak in het kader van profielen die aan advertentiebedrijven worden verkocht.
De presentatie komt uit 2010, en dat verklaart misschien waarom homo-dating app Grindr nog niet genoemd wordt. Want apps zoals Grindr blijken geregeld lek te zijn.