Carrier IQ meets feds 'to educate them' The makers of the controversial smartphone app Carrier IQ have reportedly been quizzed by federal regulators over concerns that its technology tracked user activity and uploaded data to mobile operators behind the back of consumers. The Washington Post reports that senior Carrier IQ execs have met with representatives from US …
C-IQ: Ok guys here how it works
<explanation>
FTC: We don't get it that still sounds like snooping
C-IQ: Ah, well you've not seen the supplementary handy-sized notes yet, here they're written on these small pieces of paper which look remarkably like $100 bills. Keep taking these notes until you feel you understand our position.
Folks,
The answer is plan and simple. If the Feds are asking for the data during an investigation, then Carrier IQ is a wire tap program. Otherwise they would not bother to file an FOI to get the data.
This clearly a privacy intrusion issue and Carrier IQ should be removed from all phones UNTIL it can be proved otherwise.
By the way, nice choice of Oxymoron, since "Educating the Fed's is somewhat impossible.
By the way, please remove the "anonymous cowards cannot choose theire icon from the typing window. Anyone posting here knows they cannot choose an Icon if anonymous but we would like to see what it is we are typing while we do so.
"If the Feds are asking for the data during an investigation, then Carrier IQ is a wire tap program. Otherwise they would not bother to file an FOI to get the data."
I don't think you understand how FOI requests work. The Freedom of Information Act is a means by which the public request information from the government, not a government agency requesting information from a company.
"Carrier IQ insists, that its technology is not designed as a tool for lawful interception"
Do you have that as an actual quote from Carrier IQ?
If it is not designed as a tool for lawful interception, then, logically, it is designed for interception which is unlawful.
It seems odd to me that they don't take the path of "we only make the software, we don't install it anywhere or get any of the results... talk to the carriers"
Carrier IQ's initial reaction - to sue the researcher - is the most damning response possible. If they had simply called him up and given their fluffy diagnostic-tool answer in the first place, none of this would have happened. It's this response more than anything else that makes me suspicious.
If it were just for diagnostics, it would install as a normal app with a launcher and everything. When something went wrong with your handset or service, the customer service rep need only say to you "we need to do some analysis, can you launch CarrierIQ on your phone which will send us the data we need?" and the data would be there. Either that or it would collect data (after asking your permission) and only send it when you've explicitly said to send it - i.e. when the customer service rep has asked you to.
That's the only privacy-conscious way of doing things. Nefarious or not, they should have thought things through much more.
'is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems'
What is in question is not the original design, whose accuracy no one outside Carrier IQ can testify to, but rather what the software is being used for and even more importantly what it _can_ be used for if the telcos so wish, all without prior concent or even knowledge of by the user.
As for the 'bug'.. well I hear Apple also had various 'bugs' with their location data, as did Google with their wireless sniffing cars. It's the new fall guy whenever any software company gets caught doing something they shouldn't be. "It's a bug you see, that's all. Nothing to see here move along now"
"Carrier IQ insists, that its technology is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems"
Why do carriers need a Third Party to help them diagnose handset and network problems, when the data Carrier IQ sends and receives is THE SAME DATA THE CARRIER sends and receives over IT'S OWN NETWORK?
Why is a third party trying to do what the carrier already does with their own network?
Doesn't Carrier IQ's explanation make their application ridiculously redundant?
'is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems'
Send out all the press releases you like, talk until you lose your voice on how altruistic your application is.
It is what it can be used for that matters. Regardless of the purpose of collecting that data, if it is recording information that is in any other forum, medium or setting would be protected by privacy laws then you are, by law, preaching those privacy laws, no exceptions.
Actually that last bit turns out to be not entirely true because the software firm was obliged to admit that a security bug meant its application did collect the contents of SMS messages in some circumstances. An SMS message would get embedded in signalling if, for example, a user received a message during a call. The data would be encoded and not easily readable by a human
Not easily readable by a human...
He's in a call now so call him and route the SMS to the office PC for decoding.
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