PRISM: NSA and GCHQ caught spying on Angry Birds players
by Alastair Stevenson 28 Jan 2014 Leaked documents have emerged claiming the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are using mobile applications such as Angry Birds to spy on citizens.The Guardian reported uncovering the spy operations while examining documents leaked to it by controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden. The campaigns reportedly used the applications as an entry point into smart devices, going on to gather vast amounts of information about their owner.
The agencies' spy campaigns are reportedly so advanced that they could discern the phone's model and screen size as well as personal details about its owner including their age, gender and location.
The scale of data gathering is unclear, but a leaked document from the NSA detailed a "golden nugget" scenario where its analysts could use mobile applications as a gateway to collect information from connected networks, downloaded documents, websites visited and friend lists.
Another leaked GCHQ document from 2010 indicated that the campaigns were collecting so much data, they were struggling to store it.
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