The article I chose is about how the NSA and MI5 used leaky apps to steal data. In the article the author explains how the apps passively collect information about the users. The UK and US spy agencies then used a “backdoor” into the apps to collect this information. Apparently the agencies could collect address books, geographic data embedded in photos, and even phone logs. The information was supposedly used so that advertising agencies could tailor their adverts to each individual user and so increase their chance of sales. The article finishes however, with the note that the NSA at least had yet to find a way of dealing with the surplus of information they were receiving. So for the moment our information is safe in its anonymity. I felt that this led directly to the books themes on privacy, technology, and the almost Orwellian American government represented.
For me this urge to collect as much information about ones citizens as physically possible reminded me of the scene were Lenny visits the Embassy in the 1st chapter from page 7. In this scene he submitted to a string of very personal questions from an animated otter.
Likewise, the amount of information that the government can collect from our phones reminded me of the scene in the 3rd chapter from page 35 where Lenny is researching Eunice’s life. He is capable of finding out so much information from her online footprint. Spy organizations like MI5 and NSA have so much more access into our online life than the average person, that to them the act of learning about any one person must seem almost exactly the same as it was for Lenny learning about Eunice.
Link: http://www.cnet.com/news/nsa-using-leaky-apps-like-angry-birds-google-maps-to-siphon-user-data/