Hacker creates fake Jay-Z Android app to protest NSA data collection

magna carta holy grail

Rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter made some waves when he announced that his latest album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, was going to be released three days early for Samsung owners via a special app that gave them access to the album on Thursday.

Apparently, one vehemently anti-government activist hacker wanted to get in on the hype (plus I’m sure it helped that it as on the Fourth of July), and created a fake app that replaces Jay-Z’s album art with an image of United States President Barack Obama wearing headphones, along with text that reads, “Yes We Scan.”

This is, of course, a response to the recent discovery that the NSA has been collecting data off of the phones of Verizon customers and giving it to the FBI without informing users.

The fake app was not available through the Google Play Store, which recently had to modify and strengthen its entry process for apps to make sure they weren’t exploiting a vulnerability in Android’s security system, but those who went to a third-party to get their Jay-Z fix may have found that they accidentally downloaded the anti-Obama version, instead.

[via Business Insider]

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