Spy Agencies planned to crroupt GOOGLE PLAY

By Richard Adhikari
May 22, 2015 7:30 AM PT

The United States and its leading Western allies, known as the "Five Eyes," planned to hack into smartphones through their links to Google and Samsung's app stores, CBC News and The Intercept reported.

They wanted to infect apps with spyware and find ways to send misinformation to targets, according to documents released to the media by National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The intelligence agencies also apparently began targeting the mobile browser UC Browser in late 2011, after discovering it leaked revealing details about its users.

UC Browser runs on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Java ME and Symbian.

Owned by Chinese e-commerce giantALIBABA, UC Browser is the world's leading third-party mobile browser, accounting for nearly 13 percent of the market in March, according to Sitepoint.

It's widely used in China and India, and is gaining ground strongly in emerging regions. It had 500 million users as of March 2014.

Facebook teamed up with UC Browser earlier this year to allow Facebook notifications in the app.