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Angry Birds Game by Rovio

COGwriter

It is now reported that the NSA’s and UK’s GCHQ’s surveillance actions include spying on those using Google Maps or playing a game called Angry Birds:

January 27, 2014

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.

Dozens of classified documents, provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden and reported in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica, detail the NSA and GCHQ efforts to piggyback on this commercial data collection for their own purposes.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/nsa-gchq-smartphone-app-angry-birds-personal-data

January 27, 2014

The NSA and its British counterpart are tapping popular smartphone apps such as Angry Birds to peek into the tremendous amounts of very personal data those bits of software collect — including age, location sex and even sexual preferences, according to new reports from the New York Times and The Guardian.

Citing confidential documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the reports detail efforts to supplement data collection from cell phone carriers and smartphones by tapping into “leaky” apps themselves…

Both spy agencies showed a particular interest in Google Maps, which is accurate to within a few yards or better in some locations and would clearly pass along data about a phone owner’s whereabouts…

More surprising is the wide range of apps that the agencies cull for data, including innocent-seeming apps such as “Angry Birds.” One document in particular from GCHQ listed what information can be extracted from which apps, citing Android apps but suggesting the same data was available from iPhone apps.

Angry Birds maker Rovio said it had no knowledge of any NSA or GCHQ programs or mechanisms for tapping into its users’ data.

“Rovio doesn’t have any previous knowledge of this matter, and have not been aware of such activity in 3rd party advertising networks,” said Saara Bergstrom, Rovio’s VP of marketing and communications. “Nor do we have any involvement with the organizations you mentioned [NSA and GCHQ].”

Mobile photo uploads appear to be a particularly rich source of information for the spy agencies as well.  http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/27/nsa-spying-through-angry-birds-google-maps/

Various fiction television programs and motion pictures have indicated that the government can spy on people through their telephones, webcams, outside security cameras, and distant satellites, all of which can apparently be done and have been used.  Yet, though spying through a video game on a telephone seems bizarre, this, too, has been shown in motion pictures.  Those who did not believe it was possible or true, now should realize that it is.

In my view, the USA’s National Security Agency has repeatedly violated own rules, the intent of the Constitution of the USA, and various foreign laws. It has been able to force companies to collect and transmit data that they have not wanted to do–this latest revelation will likely hurt the company behind Angry Birds as well as Google, yet neither company apparently knowingly went along with the NSA here.

By doing what it has been doing, the NSA is, according to American-companies, apparently strengthening non-USA tech companies, which in turn, will make it harder for NSA to spy as much as it wants (Rovio of Angry Birds can argue that they never could or would have done this as they are not subject to the authority of the NSA or GCHQ, unlike a firm like Google which is). Ultimately, this will help the continental Europeans and result in disaster for the USA and UK. It is also not helpful for the economy of the USA or the UK.

As I have mentioned before, even if the NSA is ordered to stop all of it, it will be too little too late. The reality is that because of the Snowden disclosures, the USA has agreed to share intelligence, espionage, and data collection techniques with the continental Europeans and foreign companies are benefiting from the fear of many being involved with American software/etc.

NSA and other government officials simply try to do as much as they feel that they ‘legally’ can, despite the protections that were written into the Constitution of the USA, such as the Bill of Rights.

Yet, there are consequences for this abuse. The consequences are starting to hurt the USA, its reputation, its economy, and its companies. Ultimately, it will be even much worse. It is not likely that USA government agencies want to give up power, and will likely attempt to make the most minor of adjustments to pretend that they are not as intrusive as they are or can be.

The so-called ‘land of the free,’ is really the land without privacy.  And the UK does not seem to be any better (with the amount of surveillance cameras on streets there, such as in London, may actually be worse than the USA, though the USA has been installing more of late).

The USA will pay for its hypocrisy according to biblical prophecies (cf. Isaiah 10:6, KJV). President Obama possibly could try to truly reverse this (the UK’s David Cameron could do something, but probably not enough), but I am not expecting much more than politically-intended statements and limited changes, despite whatever rhetoric he or his administration will state. Nor do I believe that a Republican administration will do that either (it was a Republican Administration that pushed through the poorly named Patriot Act).

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 27th, 2014 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Prophecy.

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