Carrier IQ

Lawmakers seek hearing on Carrier IQ privacy issues. News January 12, 2012 03:31 PM ET Computerworld - The Carrier IQ privacy controversy shows little signs of letting up, as three lawmakers today called for a Congressional hearing on the implications raised by the use of the company's software by wireless carriers.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), G.K Butterfield (D-NC) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) sent an open letter (download PDF) to Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asking for an investigation of the data collection and transmission capabilities of Carrier IQ's software and similar products. The letter, sent to Upton and two other subcommittee chairs, also asked Congress to find out whether Android phones were sold with security problems that would have exacerbated the problems caused by Carrier IQ's software. "Data collection and transmission by Carrier IQ and similar software is widespread, and consumers appear to have little knowledge and even less control over the practice," the three lawmakers wrote.

FBI says Carrier IQ files used for "law enforcement purposes" The FBI disclosed this weekend that data gathered by Carrier IQ software is used by it for "law enforcement purposes", but refused to give details of how it has done so.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Muckrock, the FBI said that it held relevant records but that their release could interfere with pending or prospective law enforcement proceedings. Carrier IQ Denies Violating Wiretap Laws. Carrier IQ, the beleaguered wireless metrics provider, "vigorously disagrees" with anyone who says it violates wiretap laws — and insists its software "makes your phone better" by delivering information on device performance to wireless operators.

The company admits a great deal of information on a cellphone is "available" to it. But Carrier IQ re-asserted that its software doesn't record or transmit any actual content. For example, the software can tell if a text message is sent accurately, according to the company's statement, but the software doesn't know what was said.

Carrier IQ: We don't record keystrokes, but your phone does - Dec. 16. Developer Trevor Eckhart's YouTube video exposed how detailed smartphone data was being logged by Carrier IQ's app.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As the privacy fiasco that erupted around Carrier IQ continues smoldering, the finger pointing has intensified over the controversial software that sends data from individuals' phones back to their carriers. This week, Carrier IQ concluded an internal investigation and released a report on its findings. The company's analysis confirmed that its software does not, by itself, record users' keystrokes. Instead, the report affirmed the Carrier IQ's prior suspicions that the recording is being triggered on the handset manufacturers' end.

Carrier IQ's investigation was a response to developer Trevor Eckhart's 17-minute YouTube video, which showed how the software secretly runs on his HTC EVO 3D Android phone and logs every key press, every text, and the full URL of every website he visits. The data recording was being done in what's known as a debug log. Carrier IQ Is Not Evil. How Carrier IQ was wrongly accused of keylogging. In just a handful of days, a startup company named Carrier IQ has been subjected to extraordinary public vilification , with reports accusing it of making a "rootkit keylogger" that "creeps out everyone" or is the "rootkit of all evil.

" The only problem, which is always a risk when a public lynching takes place, is that Carrier IQ appears to be not guilty of the charges lodged against it. The most serious charge against Carrier IQ, a venture capital-funded startup in Mountain View, Calif., that makes diagnostic software for carriers, has been that it records keystrokes and transmits them to carriers. Carrier IQ verbatim: Answers from company exec, researchers. It's been a tumultuous few weeks for Carrier IQ, the Mountain View, Calif.

-based startup at the center of an Internet-wide privacy flap over what its software, which carriers place on mobile phones, actually does. In Carrier IQ Scandal, iPhone Owners Avoid a Privacy Scare. What started last week as a relatively minor controversy over one company's tracking of smartphone users' behavior has ballooned into a full-fledged scandal.

The curious digging of developer and researcher Trevor Eckhart revealed that an application called Carrier IQ (CIQ) has been logging and transmitting a ton of information about what people are doing with their phones, including personal data like phone numbers dialed, URLs visited and the content of text messages. First the Electronic Frontier Foundation came to Eckhart's defense after CIQ sent a cease-and-desist letter to the developer. Now U.S. Senator Al Franken is demanding answers from CIQ. The controversy initially swirled around Android-based smartphones from a variety of manufacturers.

How To Block It On Your iPhone Now [PICS] As controversy continues to swirl around Carrier IQ, which stores data and sends it to cellphone service providers, Apple has confirmed that it stopped supporting the software in iPhones — and will remove it completely from future iPhone software.

"We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update," Apple said in a statement to All Things D. "With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. "We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so. " So how do you block Carrier IQ right now, if you're using iOS 5 or greater on your iPhone? Follow our simple guide: Carrier IQ: Your phone's secret recording device - Dec. 1. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Carrier IQ is a piece of software installed on millions of mobile phones that logs everything their users do, from what websites they browse to what their text messages say.

No, it's not part of some great Orwellian plot; it's a diagnostic tool that carriers say plays a crucial role in helping them assess and troubleshoot their networks. But the recording app, which flew under the radar for years until security researchers drew attention to it recently, is setting off red-alert privacy and security alarms. It's also spotlighting how little customers -- and, sometimes, the carriers and manufacturers themselves -- know about what goes on under the hood of their data-stuffed mobile devices. Carrier IQ and Your Phone: Everything You Need to Know. Carrier IQ Is Not Evil. Look out!

Your phone knows what you’re doing. It has your contacts, email messages, SMS text, pictures and video. It gets worse. Carrier IQ Speaks: 5 Key Takeaways. As the Carrier IQ scandal continues to heat up — now with even more lawsuits — the company has chosen to break its silence by speaking with the press. Dieter Bohn and Sean Hollister from The Verge managed to score a big interview with Carrier IQ VP Andrew Coward.

Coward reaffirms Carrier IQ's earlier statements, maintaining that the company isn't violating any wiretapping laws or doing anything untoward but he also manages to open up a bit more about exactly what Carrier IQ does do and why. The entire interview is well worth the read — and our kudos to Bohn and Hollister for securing such a win — but we were struck by a few aspects of the conversation. 1. The Carrier Is the Customer, Not End Users. Understanding Carrier IQ: The Most Detailed Explanation So Far. The controversy over Carrier IQ, a diagnostic program installed on millions of mobile phones all over the world, continues to heat up, especially after a class action lawsuit targeted the company together with several mobile manufacturers and carriers.

It's Carrier IQ's World, We Just Live in It. Somewhere along the complex supply chain of the mobile world's chips, antennas, touchscreens, operating systems and inter-linked celular networks traveling around the globe - someone has been caught capturing and transmitting more of your data than you'd probably like. There are probably any number of parties doing something similar but mobile usage data capture service Carrier IQ has been found to have code installed, with the phone companies' blessing, on millions of phones without the knowledge of consumers.

We're all awash in a sea of data, we have been for some time, but as we meet that data we learn that it is made of people. We've met the data tsunami and it is us. Carrier IQ: Is It Spying or Actionable Data? [Poll] Almost every company in the mobile ecosystem that is in one way or another associated with Carrier IQ right now is in a world of hurt.

Is the outrage over what the data that CIQ collects justified? What some call spying, others may call pertinent, actionable data designed to improve consumers' lives. Why Both You And Carrier IQ Are. Stories for Apr. 17, 2014 An appeals court has ruled that a blogger is a member of the media for the purposes of defamation law — another decision that helps support the idea of protecting acts of journalism, rather than just specific people who are defined as professional journalists Read more at GigaOM » LG likes Chromecast’s way of casting media to the TV. So instead of copying it for webOS, the company decided to integrate casting into an open SDK capable of playing nice with multiple devices. Read more at GigaOM » Stories for Apr. 16, 2014. 3 Lessons Learned from the Carrier IQ Falderal. The revelation two weeks ago from security researcher Trevor Eckhart (see YouTube video) that performance measurement software installed by carriers on Android phones record dialer keystrokes, resulted in the almost autonomous generation of Web stories asking rhetorical questions, in the vein of, "Is your smartphone spying on you?

" Web publications have a tendency to ask such questions without particularly being interested in whether anyone actually comes up with an answer. So it's almost no surprise that when another security researcher did find the answer, few publications actually noticed. Now that the facts are in front of us, we have the opportunity to take a more sober assessment of their actual meaning: Everyone Sued Over Carrier IQ: Apple, Android Makers, Phone Carriers.