Finnish software firm and the maker of the popular Angry Birds game Rovio’s website has been hacked after the reports that the US and UK spy agencies have snooped on the Angry Birds app to obtain user data.
The company has denied allegations that the gaming application shared user’s personal data and also urged its fellow companies to react against to spy agencies’ usage of information available online.
The game maker has said that it has fixed its website soon after it was defaced with an image titled ‘Spying Birds’ featuring the logo of NSA and also claimed that the end user data was in no risk at any point.
Rovio Entertainment marketing manager Saara Bergstrom said the defacement was caught in minutes and corrected immediately.
"Due to how the internet name resolution works, for most areas it was not visible at all, but some areas take time for the correct information to be updated," Bergstrom added.
The company has also announced that its is looking to re-assess its relationship with various networks after the leak of National Security Agency’s (NSA) snoop along with its British counterpart GCHQ.
According to the reports, the US and UK spy agencies have developed new systems capable of deriving personal data from some smartphone apps including the basic technical information to gender, location, as well as sexual orientation.
Rovio Entertainment CEO Mikael Hed said the fans’ trust is the most important thing for the company and it takes privacy extremely seriously.
"We do not collaborate, collude, or share data with spy agencies anywhere in the world," Hed added.
"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.
"In order to protect our end users, we will, like all other companies using third-party advertising networks, have to re-evaluate working with these networks if they are being used for spying purposes."
According to the reports, GCHQ has gathered data from the Angry Birds app, which said to have been downloaded over 1.7 billion times across the globe.
