MQ-9 Reaper Drone
The MQ-9 Reaper is used for both surveillance and combat purposes; these unmanned vehicles are often used for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Wikipedia.org

Drone strikes overseas in places like Pakistan and Yemen have become part of the media landscape in recent years. Few days pass without some report of a strike on an enemy combatant or sometimes an innocent bystander.

So if you’re not a news junkie and miss the odd strike or two, you can now download an incredible app called Metadata that sends push notifications every time there is a U.S. drone strike.

The app, which was originally designed by Josh Begley, was rejected multiple times by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) because it was considered offensive, but persistence paid off and the app is now available for download in the iTunes app store for free.

The notifications are normally short and usually give a name and what the person was doing at the time of the drone strike. For example, “Habib, an 18-year-old Pakistani citizen, was eating breakfast with his younger brothers when a missile came out of the nowhere."

The term Metadata refers to the NSA’s bulk tracking and collection of phone data in the United States, but of course that’s now old news. What’s new, as Glenn Greenwald reported earlier this week, is that the NSA is giving that information to the military to help them coordinate drone attacks.