Following up its exposé about the NSA's ability to hack into individual smartphones and decrypt their contents, Der Spiegel today published a new story about NSA spying on smartphones, which includes the following PowerPoint slides. They are illustrative if only because they demonstrate the degree to which the super-secretive agency has profound disrespect for the public. A particularly classy slide calls iPhone users 'zombies' and makes fun of us for paying for the services that enable the NSA to track our physical locations.
![](https://privacysos.wpenginepowered.com/sites/all/images/NSAiphone2.png)
Another slide calls deceased Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs "Big Brother".
![](https://privacysos.wpenginepowered.com/sites/all/images/NSAiphone3.png)
The first slide in the series alludes to George Orwell's 1984. Apparently, the joke about the book not being intended as an instruction manual wasn't lost on the NSA.
![](https://privacysos.wpenginepowered.com/sites/all/images/nsaiphone.png)
Der Spiegel also reports that NSA can hack into the Blackberry encryption system, which has led to headlines like this. The following slide shows a communication sent by a member of the Mexican government from his or her Blackberry, decrypted and obtained by the NSA.
![](https://privacysos.wpenginepowered.com/sites/all/images/NSAiphone1.png)