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By 28 January 2014 | Categories: news

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The latest shocker to emerge from Edward Snowden's revelations is that Angry Birds’ players may have a far more serious cause for outrage than pigs stealing their virtual eggs. According to Snowden, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, have been developing the wherewithal to use the popular app to mine players’ very real information.

What’s more, Angry Birds may not be the only app in which information is seen as being up for grabs by the intelligence agencies. ‘Leaky’ apps, or smartphone apps which transmit players’ and users information across a connection, are also being targeted. According to the Guardian, The New York Times and ProPublica, the security agencies are apparently interested in gathering include users’ age, gender, location and, if that wasn’t personal enough, sexual orientation as well.

Even more disturbing is a slide that emerged courtesy of Snowden which highlighted how the NSA’s ideal scenario involved a target uploading a photo that has been captured with a mobile device to a social media site. If you consider how many people first turn to their mobile device to use its camera and then share the resulting photos publically, it’s not hard to extrapolate that essentially users are  giving intelligence agencies eyes everywhere of their own accord, and potentially making themselves visible and vulnerable to far more than just friends and family.

Indeed, it again begs the question – will the death of privacy come not from a gun or even a draconian bill, but with the press of a button at the end of the increasingly ubiquitous smartphone? If Snowden’s revelations are on target, then those Angry Birds are not the only ones who should be outraged.  

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