An Android developer who disclosed the way Carrier IQ software installed on millions of mobile phones collects and reports virtually everything users do, has released a video showing that the software does indeed log user keystrokes. The company has denied collecting such specific information.
Mashable published an update on the fracas Thursday: Carrier IQ Tracking Scaandl Spirals Out of Control.
If this flap doesn’t make people wake-up to the need for better privacy laws regarding what information tech companies can collect without user permission, we’re not sure what will. Or is secretly installed snooping software that collects this much information already illegal?
While we doubt any malicious intent on the part of Carrier IQ, its executives who recently said it doesn’t record the content of text messages and emails, apparently do not know how it actually works.
In a statement issued Nov. 16 and still prominently displayed on its web site, Carrier IQ said:
“Carrier IQ delivers Mobile Intelligence on the performance of mobile devices and
networks to assist operators and device manufacturers in delivering high quality
products and services to their customers. We do this by counting and measuring
operational information in mobile devices – feature phones, smartphones and
tablets.
It added that:
“While we look at many aspects of a device’s performance, we are counting and
summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking
tools. The metrics and tools we derive are not designed to deliver such
information.”
The video Eckhart released this week appears to directly contradict the company’s statement.
When information such as this is sent to locations and persons unknown, the potential for abuse is obvious and not a little scary. Not only that, what if Carrier IQ were hacked and the information publicly disclosed? This is one story that isn’t going away today.
Carrier IQ backed off threats to sue Trevor Eckhart, the Connecticut researcher who disclosed the way Carrier IQ collects the informaiton because he mirrored the company’s own user manuals and called the software a “rootkit,” after he Electronic Frontier Foundation came to his aid.
Carrier IQ has said that its software – installed on phones without user knowledge – is meant only to gather information about such matters as where phone calls are dropped, signal quality is poor, or why applications crash, according to Wired.com.
The new video Eckhart released, however, shows that the software also reports the content of text messages and even logs encrypted web searches.
There is apparently no way to turn it off or opt out of its reporting. The software is so deeply embedded in phones that it can’t be removed without rebuilding the phone’s operating system, reports say.
We’ve contacted Carrier IQ and will post any response they may have.
Here’s CNET’s report.
Eckhart’s video:
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
© 2011, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
Tags: Carrier IQ, CNET, keylogging software on mobile phones, privacy concerns for mobile phones and tablets, Trevor Eckhart, video showing info collected by Carrier IQ, Wired.com
