Your private information is being transmitted to your wireless network provider without your knowledge. Some of that information is being relayed to government agencies.
Carrier IQ, the latent phone tracking software reporting on millions of smartphone users, has attracted the attention of the Federal Government. (Do you really think the feds will do anything about the problem?)
What’s the Problem?
More than 150 million cell phones have Carrier IQ embedded in them without the knowledge of cell phone users.
The software collects personal information from a phone including location data, text messaging data, and keystrokes. Carrier IQ surreptitiously sends the information it collects to the phone’s wireless network provider.
Of course, neither the wireless industry nor Carrier IQ was the source of information about the spy software. Instead, the news came from a security expert named Trevor Eckhart.
Co-conspirators
Although Carrier IQ revelations stunned the industry, the fact that carriers such as Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile were aware of the spy software but did nothing to publicize it was even more disturbing.
In light of the fact that no industry player has even a small record of respecting human rights, however, no one should have been surprised by the news.
Seeing that wireless customers are powerless to resolve the Carrier IQ problem, another famous abuser of human and Constitutional rights, the U.S. Government, has stepped in to “help.”
Federal Investigations
Executives from the unscrupulous Carrier IQ company were hauled into meetings with the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. A defiant company spokesperson told media outlets the company has nothing to hide (except, presumably, its software on mobile phones).
The executives also met with some staffers from Congress.
Industry Comments
Large players in the mobile phone industry have lined up to point fingers at the wireless carriers and to exonerate themselves. Microsoft, Nokia, RIM all say their phones do not use Carrier IQ. Google poured gasoline on the fire by telling media outlets that Carrier IQ is a keylogger (which it is, of course).
Carrier IQ is embedded in phones made by Samsung and HTC (we have not received comment from those companies) and Apple iPhones through version 4.
To its credit, Apple has so far been the only carrier to pledge to take action to correct the Carrier IQ problem. It will release a fix to remove Carrier IQ from older versions of its iOS software. According to Apple, iOS5 does not use Carrier IQ.
It Gets Worse
Carrier IQ has now confessed that it has captured text messaging and other private data. Besides sending the information to wireless carriers, the company has now revealed that the data it collects has been sent to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. (Under illegal U.S. laws, such warrantless violations of Constitutional and human rights are legal.)
Carrier IQ set to put the issue of illicit data feeds being sent to government agencies to rest. Rather than hand over the information themselves, the company says that the wireless carriers hand over the data to Big Brother. That makes it all better, doesn’t it?
Deja Vu
Carrier IQ is a disturbing sequel to the discovery by hackers months ago that revealed that iPhones and smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system.
The Carrier IQ controversy underscores the fact that privacy is a thing of the past as long as the Federal Government and giant corporations are allowed to run roughshod over the Constitutional and human rights of the public.
Technology is wonderful. It is convenient. But ultimately, technology will prove to be the chains that will bind us all to tyrants, global corporations and other merciless masters.
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