Would you ever be desperate enough to use a charging station made by a U.S. spy agency?
The National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused in the past of listening in to the conversations you have on your smartphone. This is a U.S. intelligence agency after all. But suppose your phone's battery was about to die and you didn't bring along a power bank or your charging cable. Would you be desperate enough to plug your phone into an NSA charging station?
The NSA charging station was spotted at Shmoocon, a conference for hackers that runs through the weekend, and was promoted with a sign that includes the NSA's imposing seal and a line that reads, "You know you want to try it!" The picture was disseminated via tweet by NSA official Rob Joyce, and other NSA employees say that the whole point of creating the charging station was for the story to go viral. The agency is actually recruiting for talent at the convention, and the sign for the charging station includes a web address that would-be NSA spooks can use to apply for a position.
"It’s tongue-in-cheek. It was created for this event so that it would allow for... exactly what you’re seeing on Twitter."-Chris Augustine, NSA media relations officer
NSA media relations officer Chris Augustine says that the agency is trying to be "edgy," so it created the charging station especially for Shmoocon. So we ask you, if the battery on your phone was down to 5% or less, would you plug the handset into an NSA charging station?
Would you plug your phone into an NSA charging station?
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