Report: NSA Snoops on Angry Birds and Other Apps

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Newly-revealed classified documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA gathered personal information such as users' location, age and sex from apps like Angry Birds.

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By Fran Berkman2014-01-27 19:46:04 UTC

You can tell a lot about a person based on her smartphone apps — but probably not as much as the National Security Agency can deduce.

The NSA, along with its British counterpart the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), has been tapping "leaky" mobile apps for information about targets since 2007. Newly revealed classified documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal that the intelligence agencies gathered personal information such as users' location, age and sex from apps like Angry Birds.

See also: What Obama's NSA Reforms Mean for Your Data

Three news organizations — the New York Times , the Guardian and ProPublica — jointly published the newly revealed documents Monday.

The Guardian report on the documents explained the plethora of information intelligence agencies can gather from apps:

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.

The Times and ProPublica, which published the same report on the documents, wrote of how the NSA and GCHQ have worked together to mine apps for data beginning in 2007.

Since then, the agencies have traded recipes for grabbing location and planning data when a target uses Google Maps, and for vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, phone logs and the geographic data embedded in photos when someone sends a post to the mobile versions of Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and other services.

The documents don't reveal the exact amount and types of data the agencies collect and store from mobile apps.

The NSA responded to inquiries about the documents from the news organization with a written statement, saying the agency does not spy on "everyday Americans" and "innocent foreign citizens." GCHQ did not comment on its involvement other than to say that its actions were in compliance with British law.

The "perfect scenario," according to an online excerpt of the documents referenced in the reports, is when a surveillance target uploads a photo from a mobile device to a social media site.

The documents suggest the agencies can cross-reference information gathered from apps with that gathered through a previously revealed spying program called XKeyscore, which allows NSA agents without prior authorization to search a huge database of information about targets such as their Internet browsing history, searches, emails and online chats.

Though NSA leaks have become commonplace since June, these new revelations come 10 days after President Barack Obama promised to reform certain controversial government surveillance tactics like the NSA's bulk collection and storage of telephone metadata.

Obama did not mention any plans to reform other bulk data collection programs, such as this mobile app data mining or the NSA's daily collection of hundreds of millions of text messages.

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Topics: angry birds, apps, Apps and Software, edward snowden, Gaming, Mobile, NSA, U.S., US & World, World