NSA extracting data from mobile app leaks

The news about the NSA's reach into our personal devices is becoming more and more harrowing each day. Recently leaked documents from the government agency show that the NSA has been successfully extracting data from our mobile applications for years.

The NSA, through analyzing and zeroing in on the configuration data of said mobile apps, are able to find location data (based on GPS), ethnicity, age, and other personal data.

The document also delineates clearly how agents can tap into our personal data that mobile applications send to ad networks. One such popular app that is referenced in the documents is Angry Birds. NSA agents were able to capture the data the game was sending to advertisers as it was in transit.

Mobile apps aren't the only smartphone features that the NSA is able to exploit. Google map queries are also susceptible. Every time you pull up the map application, the NSA is able to pinpoint your location, as your GPS information is provided without encryption. The documents revealed that this is especially the case with Android smartphones.

Even scarier is the NSA's ability to enable “hot mic” recording, meaning that they can turn on your phone's microphone without your knowledge and listen in on your conversations. They also possess the ability to access files that are stored locally on your phone in addition to other data such as text messages, pictures, calendar dates, emails; anything, really.

This certainly sounds quite scary to those of us concerned about their privacy, but here's hoping that the NSA only uses these powers only in extremely critical cases.

Source | Via