United States' National Security Agency can access Smartphone Data

                 The United States' National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smartphones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, Blackberry devices and Google's Android mobile operating system.The document stat that it is possible for the NSA to tap most sensitive data held on these smart phones, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where a user had been. The documents also indicate that the NSA has set up specific groups to deal with each operating system, with the goal of gaining secret access to the data held on the phones.
                  Smartphones, in short, are a wonderful technical innovation, but also a terrific opportunity to spy on people, opening doors that even such a powerful organization as the NSA couldn't look behind until now. According to an internal NSA report from 2010 titled, "Exploring Current Trends, Targets and Techniques," the spread of smartphones was happening 'extremely rapidly" developments that certainly complicate traditional target analysis. The NSA tackled the issue at the same speed with which the devices changed user behavior. According to the documents, it set up task forces for the leading smartphone manufacturers and operating systems. Specialized  teams began intensively studying Apple's iPhone and its iOS operating system, as well as Google's Android mobile operating system. Another team worked on ways to attack blackbery, which had been seen as an impregnable fortress until then. In exploiting the smartphone, the intelligence agency takes advantage of the carefree approach many users take to the device. According to one NSA presentation, smartphone users demonstrate "nomophobia", or "no mobile phobia". The only thing many users worry about is losing reception. The NSA analysts are especially enthusiastic about the geolocation data stored in smartphones and many of their apps, data that enables them to determine a user's whereabouts at a given time. Blackberry is faltering and is currently open to takeover bids. Security remains one of its top selling points with its most recent models, such as the Q10. If it now becomes apparent that the NSA is capable of spying on both Apple and Blackberry devices in a targeted manner, it could have far-reaching consequences. Those consequences extend to the German government. Not long ago, the government in Berlin awarded a major contract for security mobile communications withinfederal agencies. The winner was Blackberry.