Spying on mobile apps shows risks millions take each day in using them

Revelations that the National Security Agency is tapping smartphone applications to mine personal information highlight the risk millions of mobile data users take each day when they play games, schedule lunch or check the weather.

Agencies in the US and UK have infiltrated mobile software for details about users’ movements and social ties, according to documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to The New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica. Among the so-called leaky apps with the greatest privacy perils are Google Plus, Pinterest’s online bulletin board and “Candy Crush Saga”, the most popular game on Facebook, according to an analysis by Zscaler, an information security company.

“Privacy is dead in the digital world that we live in,” said Michael Sutton, vice-president of security research at Zscaler.

“I tell people, unless you are comfortable putting that statement on a billboard in Times Square and having everyone see it, I would not share that information digitally.”

The latest disclosures from Snowden underscore the vast data trove that mobile apps provide – and not just for advertisers that sweep them for consumer data.

The reach of apps, and of the networks advertisers use to pass data around, make them natural eavesdropping targets and are aiding a shift in the focus of surveillance efforts away from personal computers, Mahaffey said.