The Angry Birds website has been hacked following allegations that Rovio is purposely giving user data from Angry Birds players to surveillance agencies like the NSA. Rovio has released a statement denying said allegations.
Rovio claims they found the image superimposed over their site and removed it within a matter of minutes. The image shows their signature character Red with an NSA logo on his face, and below it the modified title “Spying Birds.”
This is in reaction to the latest round of leaks from documents acquired by Edward Snowden, explaining how agencies like the NSA acquire information from the open web. The documents make it a point to name Angry Birds and its estimated 1.7 billion userbase, pointing out that they can get identifying data such as gender, sexual orientation, marital status, aside from the bare minimum like handset model, handset ID, etc.
The Guardian article points out that if Rovio is not directly involved, their 3rd party partners, such as marketing platform Millenial Media, could be colluding with the NSA. Rovio promises to investigate these allegations and revise relationships, if necessary.
