Germany's Der Spiegel is out with a disturbing article that reports the NSA has the ability to track data on all major smartphones.
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 documents state 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 has been.
The documents also indicate that the NSA has set up specific working groups to deal with each operating system, with the goal of gaining secret access to the data held on the phones.
According to the documents, the NSA has had particular success tapping into the BlackBerry--a phone which, despite its inability to keep up with recent advances, is known to be extremely secure. It's also had very good luck looking in on iPhones, primarily through tapping into the computers iPhone users use to sync their phones.
No word yet on how Der Spiegel got its hands on the documents. However, according to CBS News, one of the people who initially got them was Laura Poitras, a filmmaker with close ties to Edward Snowden.
Der Spiegel, for those who don't know, is the most respected newsmagazine in Germany and one of the most respected in the world--roughly comparable in standing to Time here in the States.