New documents supplied by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden to The New York Times show that the the NSA and its British counterpart have the ability to collect data stemming from "leaky" mobile apps like Angry Birds.
The agencies do this not by targeting the apps themselves, but rather by intercepting third-party advertising profiles, mining them for information, and then comparing against their own list of intelligence targets, the documents show. The government agencies have the capability to snoop in this manner, and have for years, but it's not clear how prevalent the practice might be or if any terrorist plots have been thwarted as a result.
In the case of Angry Birds, a 20-page British report dated 2012 specifies the computer code necessary for vacuuming up user profiles that appear when Android users play Angry Birds. It's no surprise the NSA has targeted Angry Birds, as the game has been downloaded 2 billion times and is played by 200 million people on a monthly basis.
Rovio's own Privacy Policy posted on its website explains that the company may collect personal user data, but not for children under the age of 13. A Rovio spokesperson told The New York Times that the company has no knowledge of the American and British intelligence efforts, "nor do we have any involvement with the organizations."
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