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This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. Documents leaked by Snowden suggest that spy agencies have a powerful ally in the apps installed on smartphones across the globe. (AP Photo/The Guardian) LONDON • Documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden suggest that spy agencies have a powerful ally in the apps installed on smartphones across the globe. The documents, published by The New York Times , the Guardian , and ProPublica , suggest that the mapping, gaming, and social networking apps which are a common feature of the world's estimated 1 billion smartphones can feed America's National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ with huge amounts of personal data, including location information and details such as political affiliation or sexual orientation. The size and scope of the program aren't p...

Sometimes it pays to be wary of your friends!   As more people turn to Facebook and Twitter for much of their online communicating, Internet scammers and spammers are trying to cash in by hijacking the names and images of users’ “friends’’ and “followers.’’ They use the stolen identities to place fake come-ons and shady pitches alongside all the funny pictures and snide remarks posted by people legitimately granted access to online accounts. The goal is to trick users into buying products, volunteering credit card numbers and other personal information, or unknowingly installing malicious software that can damage computers. Too often, the tactics work, according to computer security specialists, in part because of our faith in people we know. “When someone posts a link, they say, ‘Oh, that’s from my friend, I trust that link,’ ’’ said Maxim Weinstein, executive director of StopBadware Inc., a Cambridge nonprofit that helps Internet users guard against computer viruses and spyware. ...