This doesn't mean that the NSA isn't taking advantage of the popularity of Angry Birds

Jan 28, 2014 14:08 GMT  ·  By

Following reports that the National Security Agency has managed to find a way inside people’s phones via advertising attached to various popular apps, including “Angry Birds,” game developer Rovio reacts.

“Rovio Entertainment Ltd, which is headquartered in Finland, does not share data, collaborate or collude with any government spy agencies such as NSA or GCHQ anywhere in the world,” starts a statement coming from the company.

Rovio continues, saying that the surveillance may be conducted through third-party advertising networks used by millions of commercial websites and mobile apps and if that’s the case, then no ad-enabled app is immune to the NSA.

However, “Rovio does not allow any third party network to use or hand over personal end-user data from Rovio’s apps,” the company claims.

“Our fans’ trust is the most important thing for us and we take privacy extremely seriously. We do not collaborate, collude, or share data with spy agencies anywhere in the world. As the alleged surveillance might be happening through third party advertising networks, the most important conversation to be had is how to ensure user privacy is protected while preventing the negative impact on the whole advertising industry and the countless mobile apps that rely on ad networks,” says Mikael Hed, Rovio Entertainment’s top exec.

The company plans to re-evaluate working with third-party advertising networks if they are being used for spying purposes.

How exactly Rovio hopes to figure out which networks are being used for NSA’s spying purposes and which are innocent is unclear at the moment.

Furthermore, while Rovio may not allow any third-party network to use or hand over data, that doesn’t mean the NSA doesn’t get it anyway since it doesn’t exactly have a track record of following the rules and asking for permission from companies. In fact, it is known for doing exactly the opposite.