Reply To: Spying on Angry Birds Gamers

Home Forums General Discussions Forum Spying on Angry Birds Gamers Reply To: Spying on Angry Birds Gamers

birdMeister
@birdmeister

Rovio may not know what is going on and not condone it, but once the spy agencies found the holes in their apps (“leaky” is the term used), I’m sure they couldn’t resist tapping into such a popular app. Plus the advertisers who buy placements from Rovio know how to target certain age and demographic groups from user profiles. Apparently the NSA has used this means to gather info on us.

In another example, a secret 20-page British report dated 2012 includes the computer code needed for plucking the profiles generated when Android users play Angry Birds. The app was created by Rovio Entertainment, of Finland, and has been downloaded more than a billion times, the company has said.

Rovio drew public criticism in 2012 when researchers claimed that the app was tracking users’ locations and gathering other data and passing it to mobile ad companies. In a statement on its website, Rovio says that it may collect its users’ personal data, but that it abides by some restrictions. For example, the statement says, “Rovio does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age.”