Gov't Surveillance On World of Warcraft, iPhone 5S Goes To China

Welcome to the IBT Tech Spot - 60 seconds on what you need to know in technology. The NSA, CIA, and FBI have been monitoring the popular online game World of Warcraft, gathering player information and recording “suspicious activities,” according to newly released Snowden documents. Agents were meant to uncover terrorist plots but apparently spent most of their time chasing their own elf tails. Continuing on the surveillance beat, eight of the largest US tech companies (AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo) have signed a letter to the gov’t calling for reform in domestic surveillance policy. Interesting to note that many of these companies  willingly provided user information in the past. Finally, China is gearing up to finally get the iPhone. China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world, will start taking pre-orders for the iPhone this Thursday. China Mobile has about 700 million subscribers and is launching 4G network that will support the iPhone 5S. Currently, around 80% of smartphones in China are Androids. Join us tomorrow for the next Tech Spot.