In recent times, millions of phones have been secretly slapped with a software by the name of Carrier IQ. Carrier IQ is a software that quietly and seamlessly logs everything that the user does on the phone. It logs all information including the simplest things such as pressing keys and returning to the home screen, information that we find useless gets sent back to the manufacturer. The disturbing part about the software is that it even collects personal and sensitive information such as the content of our text messages and every single website that the user visits. Although this seems like it is invading the users privacy rights, carriers claim that this is a tool which supposedly plays a big role in helping them to assess and troubleshoot their networks. It doesn’t stop just yet, in previous years and now there has been a recording app which remained under the radar until security researchers were able to identify it. Because of the recording app, Carrier IQ has raised many eyebrows and set off many privacy and security alarms.
When this was brought to media attention, this showed how little we as smartphone users monitor what goes on with our devices. On estimate, research showed that Carrier IQ is on over 150 million devices. AT&T and Sprint are reported and have confirmed that handsets on their networks use Carrier IQ to transmit information back to them. On the other hand T-Mobile never confirmed any questions but according to researchers, devices on their networks utilize the tool as well. Verizon, on the good note, was able to confirm that none of their devices were accessed by Carrier IQ.
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