The title may be a bit scary, and while this isn’t an attack to Android nor iPhone, the recent news/discovery about a software provided by CarrierIQ that has been preinstalled on millions of smartphones in the U.S is alarming. While the case actually happened in the U.S, there’s no proof so far that the same situation doesn’t apply to other countries too. Learn about smartphone collected data.
Telco diagnose tool
This software has been installed with good intent: it has been installed so that it can report any log that can help the Telco diagnose any issue on the Android devices that they are shipping. The issue is that most users weren’t even aware of this software being installed on their phone. Well, that was true until a guy published a Youtube video demonstrating it. Here is the second part of the video showing how this works the initial Carrier IQ video.
Since then, the web has been buzzing about it, if you want to get a feel of it, follow the #CIQ on twitter.
So as to get the views from both sides, here is the official reply by CarrierIQ with regard to this issue.
CarrierIQ response
CarrierIQ even published a video about it
CarrierIQ response
Anyway, so as to close the loop, we have found a video on Youtube that shows you how to remove the CarrierIQ software from your smartphone. You may want to view it and then advise depending on your situation.
disabling carrier IQ
Collecting info from the mobile phones
This CarrierIQ issue (some say it’s a scandal) has gained a lot of coverage. And while the Telcos (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint) has clearly announced that they may be collecting info from mobile phones, the proportion this video has had is so important that most major players are talking about it.
Some consumers aren’t even aware of this smartphone collected data. In fact, most of them don’t even care. In fact, this application has been running on those smartphones since they were shipped, and from my understanding, neither CarrierIQ nor the Telcos deny the fact that they are collecting info from those smartphones (please correct me if I’m wrong here).
How do we check the smartphone collected data?
So as of today, the question actually is: this software can track what is done on your smartphone (well the purpose of the software is to collect info from the smartphone so as to help diagnose any issues on it)- but how do you check if it collected more than it was supposed to track? This is still an open question and I’m sure we’ll come to a conclusion someday.
What do you think?
Anyway, we’d love to hear your feedback about this breach: do you think this has been properly addressed? Do you think this is a serious threat to your privacy? Will this event make you think twice before going for a Smartphone that is “vulnerable” to this threat? If so, how would you ensure that the other option you’ll want to go for will not also be prone to have such similar software installed?
Feel free to voice your concerns, or share with our readers about your own experience about it. Or eventually, link us to other similar experiences that you may be aware of.