NSA Program HAPPYFOOT Exploits Advertiser Metadata

The Washington Post has reported on an NSA program codenamed “HAPPYFOOT” that obtained device information mostly courtesy of the unencrypted traffic that comes from many cellular phones with “ad supported” apps and their respective advertising networks. It is buried in their article which attempts to explain how the NSA target cellular devices but I nonetheless found it interesting that the major advertising networks have yet to comment on whether they will be altering their business to prevent this from happening or at the very least SSLizing the communications.