The documents published by the New York Times, ProPublica and Guardian are shocking and report that American and British intelligence agencies repeatedly attempted to steal users' personal data through the popular game Angry Birds and other smartphone applications..
According to documents released by Edward Snowden, the NSA and the British GCHQ have been collaborating since 2007, with the aim of developing methods that would allow access to information via smartphones and tablets.
Among other things, the documents concern information about websites, locations and contacts of smartphone users.
The NSA categorically denies the allegations, stating that it has no interest in users' personal data.
"Any suggestion of NSA involvement in the collection of personal data of American citizens via smartphones or social media is completely untrue," it said in a statement.
So far, the scale of the data that has been collected remains unclear.
The reports, however, speak of data obtained from a combination of map applications, games and social media, with methods similar to those used to monitor internet traffic and SMS.
Furthermore, according to the documents, British and American intelligence agencies have been convinced of the importance of the data that can be gathered from smartphone applications.
Another GCHQ report, from 2012, concerns the way information is collected from Angry Birds users on devices running Android.
It is noted that the popular game from the Finnish company Rovio has been "downloaded" by 1.7 billion users worldwide.
Another NSA document talks about a "golden nugget," or the perfect scenario, in which American intelligence agencies can gain access to a wide range of information from applications.
These include the networks the phone is connected to, data the user has downloaded, websites they have visited, and friends lists.
Other sources of information, referred to in the documents, are Flickr, Flixster and applications connected to Facebook.
Source: BBC
Source: planet-greece.blogspot.com
