Carrier IQ, the spy installed on millions of mobile

The discovery of a software "spyware" spans more than 100 million phones, to communicate information to telecom operators, creating a new controversy over the safety of personal data.We knew that smartphones were "smart phones", but we did not know they had an IQ. Husked by a programmer named Trevor Eckhart, whose video was viewed nearly a million times on YouTube, the software designed by Carrier IQ is installed without your knowledge on millions of mobile phones. And he is accused of tracing their users, recording their location data, the content of SMS messages, research on engines, called numbers, applications that have turned on the phone, the buttons that they supported. .. The scandal caused a stir in the United States.Carrier IQ, the spy installed on millions of mobile
Carrier IQ is as a provider of intelligence to the mobile industry, telecom operators and manufacturers. On his website you can see that its software is installed in 141 million devices worldwide (cell standard, smartphones, tablets). The company ensures that its tools are only used to improve service operators such as AT & T and Sprint, which analyze the data it sends them to solve such problems not sent SMS or missed calls. Carrier IQ explains that the message contents, for example, are not stored or passed on to operators and servers, although the software has access. Like a bugging system installed by default, but no one to watch.
But since it is the operators that define what data they want to collect - Carrier IQ is as a simple running - they could just as easily have access to more information. It's a real problem, given that the user can not disable Carrier IQ on his phone, and is not even aware that the software runs continuously in the background. It also raises concerns in terms of safety, if criminals were able to develop malicious software that can access data from Carrier IQ.
According to an expert quoted by Mashable, Carrier IQ is comparable to an outright illegal listening. It was on this basis and the law prohibiting tapping a class action was launched in Chicago and St. Louis against HTC and Samsung, the plaintiffs claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Verizon has denied use of Carrier IQ software. Apple, meanwhile, told AllThingsD have stopped using Carrier IQ in most of its products with the new version of its IOS operating system 5, and it will completely remove the software at a future upgrade. "For any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must express their consent to share information, and if they do, the data is sent anonymously, encrypted, and do not include personal data. We do not store Never keystrokes typed, messages or any personal information whatsoever. " Nokia and BlackBerry are not customers of Carrier IQ.
As for Google, there is no direct client for Android. OEMs and operators using its operating system decide for themselves whether to use Carrier IQ. Contacted by L'Expansion. Com, Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom have not yet responded to our requests for information.
This is the second time this year that mobile phones are in the firing line on issues of confidentiality of personal data. In April a debate broke out on a tracking system iPhone users through their location data. U.S. Democratic Senator Al Franken, who was seized at the time of the subject to develop a draft law on the safety of mobile phones, rose the breach to seek an explanation from Carrier IQ.