Thanks to Techdirt for pointing me to an article in Der Spiegel, detailing more of the NSA's programs for hacking into and using data from smartphones (but definitely not our smartphones. Nope. Only the smartphones of the really really bad guys!)

Among some of the more revealing bits from the article are the comments by former NSA head Michael Hayden, where he refers to each of the [at that time] 400,000 iphone apps as "400,000 possibilities for attacks" and the presentation's display of photos purportedly taken from hacked smartphones, including one of "a former senior government official of a foreign country who, according to the NSA, is relaxing on his couch in front of a TV set and taking pictures of himself -- with his iPhone. To protect the person's privacy, SPIEGEL has chosen not to reveal his name or any other details."

While I suppose on some level its comforting to know that our government has the capability to use this technology to track and monitor America's "enemies", I just can't bring myself to believe that our government officials will use this technology responsibly, or just to spy on actual and current enemies of our nation. In fact, I have a hard time believing that the NSA agents will consistently use this technology to spy on enemy opera

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