WASHINGTON — The NSA and British intelligence made plans to tap popular smartphone apps — including the game “Angry Birds” — to scoop up information about users, classified documents reveal.
The popular game is one of many “leaky” apps the spy agencies proposed targeting in an effort to glean personal information from users.
A secret 20-page British report from 2012 “includes the computer code needed for plucking the profiles generated when Android users play ‘Angry Birds,’ ” the news organization ProPublica reported.
ProPublica was one of three outlets that reported on the practice Monday based on documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
The spy agencies planned to use the apps, including Google’s popular mapping app, to gather location and other personal data.
“It effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system,” one document said, referring to Government Communications Headquarters, Britain’s version of the National Security Agency.
A slide from a 2010 presentation by the NSA reveals information about a project, called Golden Nugget, to extract data from phones.
Notes on the slides mention e-mail information, “buddy lists,” location and other data that could be mined.
Asked about the latest revelation from Snowden, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration was focused only on intelligence targets — but did not confirm or deny the use of the tactic.
“We are not interested in the communications of people who are not valid for intelligence targets, and we are not after the information of ordinary Americans,” he said.
But Carney defended the use of high-tech surveillance.
“Terrorists, proliferators, other bad actors use the same communication tools that others use,” he said.
The leaky apps could reveal all kinds of personal information about users — even a person’s sexual orientation.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper notes that one app mentioned as a possible target in the documents lets users categorize themselves as “single,” “married,” or “swinger.”
The Finnish company Rovio, which owns “Angry Birds,” said it didn’t know anything about spying.
The extent of the agencies’ intrusions into the app was not spelled out in the documents.
In a related development Monday, top Internet companies reached an agreement with the feds that would allow them to reveal how often the government orders them to turn over information about customers.