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Gelfling
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BBC News – Technology. 29 January 2014

Angry Birds website hacked after NSA-GCHQ leaks (“Wiki-leaks”)

The spoof image superimposed the NSA’s logo over one of the Angry Birds characters (see the article for the image that hackers posted on Angry Birds site) …

Video game developer Rovio has confirmed that hackers defaced its Angry Birds site with an image entitled Spying Birds, featuring an NSA logo.

The attack followed the publication of leaks that indicated the US spy agency and its British counterpart GCHQ had obtained data released by at least one of the Finnish firm’s games.

The company said it did not “collaborate or collude” with any government spy agency.

It added it had quickly fixed its site. …

On Monday, the New York Times, ProPublica and the Guardian all posted copies of documents obtained from whistle-blower Edward Snowden that suggested the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ had worked together since 2007 to develop ways to gain access to information from applications for mobile phones and tablets.

They said that a GCHQ report, dated 2012, had specifically referred to their ability to snatch details about a user if they had installed Angry Birds on to an Android device.

The report said that the data could include information about the owner’s age, sex, location and even if they were currently listening to music or making a call. It added that the range of information depended in part on which online advertising network Rovio sent the details to.

Following the news, Rovio posted a blog saying it would now reconsider how it shared data with its partners.