In this interview, McAfee consultant and identity‑theft specialist Robert Siciliano explains how the National Security Agency (NSA) is able to harvest personal data from smartphone applications, including popular games like Angry Birds. He describes the kinds of information that can be extracted—sexual orientation, gender, age, marital status, location, and metadata from photos—often because apps request it directly or because unencrypted data is passed to third‑party advertising networks embedded in free apps. Siciliano notes that these ad SDKs can leak data without the developer’s control, allowing the NSA and other entities to build detailed profiles of users. He warns that such profiling can be used against individuals, especially if they become subjects of investigation, and advises users to limit data sharing (e.g., disabling GPS) and be cautious about the information they provide to apps.
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Alright, Kevin, thank you. So what are you up to? A little bird told the NSA. A little angry bird. Apparently the games you play on your smartphone, some of the apps, are the latest way that the National Security Agency can gather up information about you. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and McAfee consultant, and thank you for being with us. It just keeps continuing, the ways that they can peer into our lives. Does this surprise you?
Unfortunately, it doesn't, but the NSA and their snooping has just got even uglier. The fact that they They are peeking in on the games that you play on your Android and iPhone devices and extracting data such as sexual preferences. It's quite alarming.
Okay, so sexual orientation, gender, age, even marital status, those were some of the things that they can find out. Is this information that people are volunteering? They are putting that in when they sign up for these apps?
So the applications themselves, some of them ask for this type of information in order to play certain games or maybe to meet a match, like if it's a dating application, they might ask you a lot of personal questions. And the applications that are unencrypted are often the ones that are leaking a lot of information.
Okay, Rob, this is my question. So it's one thing if we are entering it, we know that we're giving it to that company, the developer of the app. So how is the NSA getting it from them? Why are they even looking at this info?
So a lot of these apps, especially the free ones, have a portion of the application that allows for advertisers to essentially usually, you know, have a revolving banner ad on their different apps. And it's these third parties that is where they suspect the leaks are coming from. And the applications themselves don't have a lot of control over that.
Okay, so when it comes to the encryption, I mean, for example, when somebody says, would you like to enable the location on this app, I usually say no because I don't want people to know where I am. But then it'll say the app won't work. Is that what would happen if you complained to the developer?
That is— that is correct. The more information you're providing, including your location, gives the NSA and others more access to you. If you were to, say, disable that GPS, you might not be able to play that game. But in this situation, I think that's a good thing that you just kind of stay away from it.
Okay, so where is this information going though? What sort of profile could somebody in the NSA build? You mentioned advertisers, that makes sense. Sure, they can target you with other stuff, they can send you emails, whatever. But what's the thing that scares you about this?
Well, what scares me is that they're cataloging this information in a number of different ways. They're getting metadata, which is information that they strip from photos that you might upload to, say, Facebook or Twitter that has your name and your address and other types of data. So they can really get a solid profile on you, where you're at, again, you know, your preferences and so forth, putting together a pretty solid profile on you. Generally, if you're up to no good, that will definitely be used against you, but you never know who at the NSA or elsewhere is looking into this information.
Right, you just don't like the fact that it exists out there at all, and now they're looking even at games and apps. So something to consider, Rob, as we fill out that information on the apps on our smartphones. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right, Robert Siciliano, identity theft expert and McAfee consultant. Thanks for being with us. And Mark and Brendan, over to you.
