Angry Birds' Rovio: 'We have not colluded with the NSA'

Following speculation that the user data from Rovio's mobile hit franchise Angry Birds has been targeted by the National Security Agency, Rovio has now said that it has never shared any user data with the agency. New documents leaked by Edward Snowden earlier this week, as reported by The Guardian, allege that the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ are targeting "leaky" mobile apps that transmit user information. The report suggests that the NSA is able to acquire personal details like names, ages, genders and locations from these mobile game communications, including from the Angry Birds games. Rovio has now stated that it "does not share data, collaborate or collude with any government spy agencies such as NSA or GCHQ anywhere in the world." "The alleged surveillance may be conducted through third party advertising networks used by millions of commercial web sites and mobile applications across all industries," it continues. "If advertising networks are indeed targeted, it would appear that no internet-enabled device that visits ad-enabled web sites or uses ad-enabled applications is immune to such surveillance. Rovio does not allow any third party network to use or hand over personal end-user data from Rovio’s apps." Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, added that since this alleged surveillance may be happening through third-party networks, the company is now re-evaluating which networks it works with in the future.