Who is carrier iq

On top of that, a good custom ROM can also help give your aging hardware a shot in the arm thanks to software tweaks and features it may not get otherwise. This process also requires you to root your device, and can be very tricky for first-time modders. If you decide to go this route, check out the XDA-developer forums for more information on what it takes for your specific device. It's pretty weak.

Are carriers playing favorites, making some manufacturers install Carrier IQ, while others don't have to? What about people using iOS 4 or earlier? Are their phones still sharing data? Frankly, all parties involved -- carriers and OEMS -- are doing a terrible job at answering the big questions and communicating what Carrier IQ means for their customers.

There's a lot to unpack here, and customers deserve a clear answer. Personal privacy is at stake. And Carrier IQ needs to come forward with a clear explanation of what its service is. It's still alarming that Carrier IQ's program has the ability to strip out personal data from your smartphone and we deserve assurance that this won't happen.

For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. A video Eckhart posted to YouTube a few days ago appears to show Carrier IQ logging a text message in plain text and noting activities such as hitting the "home" button.

It also logged a search on Google over an encrypted Wi-Fi connection. But Andrew Coward, vice president of marketing for Carrier IQ, told CNET various types of data are gathered for customer support reasons and to help carriers troubleshoot problems with the network or the phone. The software doesn't record keystrokes but does look at key sequences and will take specified actions if it sees certain sequences pressed.

For instance, a support representative might ask a phone user to dial a short code that will then trigger the software to send diagnostic information to the server, according to Coward.

The software can count text messages and flag them if they don't get sent properly and will listen for text messages that are coded in a certain way and sent by customer support representatives that can trigger other specific actions. The software can be used to gather historical information on a phone, such as calls dropped in the last day or so, and information on phones that have dropped calls during a specific period in a geographic region can be aggregated to help point out network problems, according to Coward.

Carrier IQ can also collect URL strings, which can be used to help carriers troubleshoot problems people might report accessing certain Web sites, for example. And the software may need to know what applications are on the phone to figure out what might be causing a battery to drain, he said.

Eckhart's video doesn't appear to show any data being transmitted from the phone to a remote server. Coward said that Carrier IQ transmits data in encrypted form. The data can be sent to either Carrier IQ's network or the carrier's network, and it is typically stored for 30 days, he added.

The carriers are pretty much free to do what they want with it, including conceivably sell it or share it with third parties, Coward said. Carrier IQ says its software is embedded in more than million phones globally but doesn't name its customers. Samsung told CNET that the data is sent to the carriers and they would be best to answer further questions.

Motorola acknowledged its devices have it but referred further questions to carriers, the report said. Sprint said it uses Carrier IQ to analyze network performance and identify areas for improvement. Google confirmed that it has never shipped Carrier IQ on any of its Nexus devices.

After iOS developer Grant Paul revealed that he found Carrier IQ on the iPhone , although with more limited functionality , Apple said it hasn't used Carrier IQ since it released iOS 5 last month and promised to remove it entirely from its products in a future software update. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who heads a Senate privacy panel, sent a letter to Carrier IQ today asking the company to provide information on the types of data collected and other questions:.

And Paul Ohm, a former Justice Department prosecutor and law professor at the University of Colorado Law School, told Forbes that there might be grounds for a class-action lawsuit based on a federal wiretapping law.