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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.“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,” the Guardian said.That information can come from a user profile, which may contain martial status -- options included "single," "married," "divorced," "swinger" and more, the report said.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.
其中，由于“谷歌地圖”能夠在一定范圍內準確顯示并傳輸用戶所處位置，英美兩國情報機構對這款手機應用程序興趣極高。美國《紐約時報》指出，“這實際上意味著，任何在智能手機上使用谷歌地圖的人其實都在支持英國政府通訊總部的情報搜集系統”。此外，手機上傳照片也為情報機構搜集信息提供了豐富的資源。英美兩國情報機構可通過挖掘照片元數據，了解用戶幾乎全部的私隱信息。據悉，英國政府通訊總部內部還存有一份文件，其中清楚列明從哪些手機應用程序中可獲取哪些信息，并寫道不論智能手機搭載的是安卓還是iOS系統，獲取信息都是“可行的”。《憤怒的小鳥》開發商芬蘭Rovio公司表示，他們對于情報機構利用該公司出品的游戲搜集用戶數據一事毫不知情。而美國白宮發言人卡尼27日回應稱，國安局并不針對一般的美國民眾,“美國國安局收集情報的對象是有效的外國情報目標，而非一般美國民眾，我們不是在追蹤普通美國人的信息”。
