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Smartphone apps may leak sexual orientation

Wed 29 Jan 2014 In: International News

'Leaky' smartphone apps are apparently being used by USA and UK intelligence agencies to gain access to information about the phones' users, including their sexual orientation. The allegation is one of the latest to emerge from the millions of documents provided to the UK's Guardian newspaper and other media outlets by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The documents indicate that many apps are 'leaky' and provide access to information such as is held in cookies or which is temporarily used by apps or the host smartphone. A classified slide presentation by the American National Security Agency uses the hugely popular Angry Birds as an example of an app the spy agencies could be using. The creators of Angry Birds say they have had no involvement with the agencies and the agencies themselves claim that they only spy on "legitimate intelligence targets."    

Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff

First published: Wednesday, 29th January 2014 - 8:17pm

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