Sprint Asking Partners To Get Rid Of Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ got a lot of press lately but all that ink turned out to be a tad bitter for the company. Starting from the moment the software bit was discovered until the official Carrier IQ position, and statements from carriers and OEMs, the buzz is just getting more and more hyped.

According to recent reports based on information received from "sources inside HTC", "as a result of the lawsuits targeting Carrier IQ, Sprint, and other CIQ-using OEMs", Sprint "has asked all of their partners to get rid of Carrier IQ". We're talking about the same Sprint that recently said "Carrier IQ can be found on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones". Sprint made it clear that it "does not and can not" look or record contents of messages, photos and videos on phones but the usage of the Carrier IQ bit is limited to understanding device performance on the network, a fact that is also laid down in Sprint's privacy policy.

The plan is for OEMs to prepare updates which will then be delivered over-the-air to phones, refreshes which will of course be lacking Carrier IQ. There's no timeframe attached but you can expect updates to start hitting devices in the very near future.

[Source: Geek]

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Eric Schmidt: Google Does not Work with or Support Carrier IQ

If the name itself wasn’t enough to suggest that the carriers are the one behind the installation of Carrier IQ onto mobile devices, perhaps the word of Google’s Eric Schmidt can clear things up. “We certainly don’t work with them and we certainly don’t support them,” Schmidt said of the tracking software. Despite the claims of the analytics company to the contrary, Schmidt said of the service, “it’s a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes.”
Though even if Google does not support Carrier IQ at the OS level, as mentioned earlier network providers still have the option to install the suite of data gathering software. Android is, after all, an open platform. “It’s possible for people to build software that’s actually not very good for you,” said Schmidt, “and this appears to be one.”
[via Reuters]

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Schmidt says Google could do nothing to stop Carrier IQ

According to Google’s Eric Schmidt, there is nothing the search giant could have done to stop Carrier IQ because of the open nature of the Android operating system. Schmidt condemned Carrier IQ at the Google hosted conference on internet freedom held in the Hague reports the Telegraph. According to Schmidt when a platform is open people can make software that is bad for the users.

Schmidt was very specific in saying that Google does not work with or support Carrier IQ. Carrier IQ has been in the news ever since a security researcher posted video showing the extent of the tracking the software carries out. The use of Carrier IQ software has landed the company, Samsung, and HTC in the center of class action suits. One US Senator is also calling for answers to questions about what the software tracks by December 14.
Carrier IQ says that its software is currently installed on 140 million mobile phones around the world. The company denies that it tracks anything personal and is only helping make networks better. Many users and consumer advocate groups feel that no matter what the software tracks the permissions it gets from users is inadequate. Most users had no idea the software was on their mobiles.
[via SlashGear]

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T-Mobile and Sprint Speak Out About Their Carrier IQ Use

T-Mobile and Sprint have recently decided to chime in on the conversation regarding their use of Carrier IQ, a metrics tool used to gather statistical data. Via some internal and unreleased memos regarding Carrier IQ, both carriers have discussed, as expected, its intended use which was to simply log data for troubleshooting and to improve the overall network performance for each respective carrier. Check out their responses below in an interview with The Verge:

To wit:

T-Mobile: ”T-Mobile does not use the tool to obtain the content of text, email or voice messages, or the specific destinations of customers’ Internet activity. It is not used for marketing purposes. T-Mobile uses the Carrier IQ diagnostic tool to gather device data for effective troubleshooting and to increase the overall device and network performance for our customers.
Sprint: ”Sprint uses the Carrier IQ data to only understand device performance on our network so we can identify when issues are occurring. … Even with Carrier IQ, Sprint does not and cannot look at or record contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., nor do we sell or provide a direct feed of Carrier IQ data to anyone outside Sprint.

In addition, T-Mobile also went one step further and listed the devices on its network currently running the Carrier IQ software. Hit the break for the full list of infected handsets.

• HTC Amaze 4G
• Samsung Galaxy S II
• Samsung Exhibit II 4G
• T-Mobile myTouch by LG
• T-Mobile myTouch Q by LG
• LG DoublePlay
• Blackberry 9900
• Blackberry 9360
• Blackberry 9810

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New Carrier IQ Class Action Lawsuit Sues More OEMs, Carriers

As accusations of fouplay within Carrier IQ have turned up due to research work done by Trevor Eckhart – who exposed the company for collecting user information that may be violating the Federal Wiretap Act – some lawsuits shortly followed.
One early class action lawsuit targeted HTC, Samsung and Carrier IQ. A new one filed by three lawfirms in a joint effort is targeted at HTC, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Strangely enough, Carrier IQ itself isn’t being sued in this particular instance.

Carrier IQ has not been hit with a formal federal investigation yet but these lawsuits and pressure from government bodies all add nicely to a hopeful investigation sometime in the future.
Carrier IQ has admitted that their application may appear to be logging information that should be kept private, but they say it’s a byproduct of trying to send information to carriers and OEMs that is actually useful to helping them improve wireless service.
Saying it is one thing and proving it is another, though. Hopefully more of these lawsuits turn up and a big, bright spotlight will be put on the carriers and OEMs who use this service in order to put immense pressure on Carrier IQ to fully and accurately show what information really is or isn’t being transmitted from our phones.

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