14 DAY TRIAL // Application Developers Alliance, an organization that includes over 25,000 individual developers and over 135 companies, including Google, MEDL Mobile and AT&T, has condemned the NSA for damaging the industry.
Following recent reports revealing that the NSA and GCHQ have managed to find a way into mobile devices via advertising attached to popular apps in order to collect private data about users, the Alliance reacted.
The app list includes Angry Birds, Facebook, Google Maps, Flickr, Twitter and Flixter. Rovio, the developer behind Angry Birds, has already denied giving the government access to the collection of user data.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t really mean anything, since the intelligence agencies aren’t really known for asking permission in such cases.
“Uninhibited collection of consumers’ personal data by governments hacking into apps is unacceptable. Developers are surprised and disappointed to learn that personal information entrusted to them by users has been secretly collected and stored. This surveillance damages our entire industry and undermines the hard work of app developer entrepreneurs everywhere,” the Application Developers Alliance states.
The news about these apps isn’t really great for developers, especially since government intrusion undermines the users’ interest in sharing any type of information with apps in general. Less details shared translates into less money for developers, who use anonymous data to help marketers target ads.
“App developers are constantly innovating new ways to protect consumers’ privacy. In support of that work, last year, we took a leading role in drafting the voluntary code of conduct for mobile app privacy that resulted from multistakeholder talks held by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This year, we’ll be participating in similar talks on the topic of facial recognition technologies,” the Alliance says about its plans.
The latest revelations based on Edward Snowden’s file point out that the governments of the world will do anything to get user information, even when it has nothing to do with terrorism, as they have claimed countless times so far.