Mouchard Carrier IQ : iOS concerned, to a lesser extent according to Apple

Apple would also use in its smartphones Carrier IQ, the accused software solution to track the activities of a phone without the knowledge of the user. The Apple brand ensures however limit its use in data collection techniques. It promises that it will be removed from future versions of IOS.
Carrier IQ


The controversy continues to grow in the United States after several Android device manufacturers (HTC, Samsung) and Blackberry have admitted integrated Carrier IQ software on their terminals at the request of local operators. Discovered by Trevor Eckhart, this client discreet and simply impossible to uninstall is not only suspected of gathering lots of information about the use made of a phone (typing, position, phone calls, etc..), But also share given to operators via a Web portal. Although operators are Carrier IQ as a diagnostic tool intended to help them identify failures and malfunctions, some see it as a deliberate violation of privacy.
Apple remained a stranger to controversy, until hackers decided to look more closely at what is going on within IOS, its mobile operating system. Chpwn, application developer unofficial iPhone (Cydia distributed), and claims to have discovered traces of the software within iOS 3 and iOS 4. The amount of information collected would prove less important than in other environments competitors. According Chpwn, it would be limited in number, the operator, the country, and to calls made to the location if the user has enabled the option: an amount of data sufficient to fear an invasion of privacy even if its implementation in IOS, Carrier IQ would have no access to the user interface and therefore, information such as the content of messages or addresses of sites visited on the web.
Apple probably smarting from the memory of the scandal “Consolidated.db”, has for once been quick to react. In a communication addressed to the American media, the company claims to have already stopped using Carrier IQ within iOS 5 and promises that the software will be completely removed in a future update of the system. “In terms of diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must explicitly agree to share this information and if they do, the data is sent anonymously, encrypted, not including any personal information,” says Will she added.
Asked by ArsTechnica, she also stated that among the phones with iOS 5, only the iPhone 4 was still appeal to Carrier IQ via the diagnostic service that the user can enable or disable at the first configuration of the phone. Via the Phone settings menu, you can check the status of this service, stop it if it was active, and consult the privacy policy through which Apple promises that no personal information will be transmitted by bias, with the exception of location data if the service is active.
iOS 5 Diagnostics and Use
iOS 5 Diagnostics and Use
“It seems that if you are really attentive to all that, Windows Phone 7 is the only mobile operating system that does not have (this software) installed: P” concludes Chpwn. “Anyway, I think that those to blame here are the U.S. carriers, who have clearly asked: I personally agree with the fact that data is sent (especially if this can help improve the network of AT & T), but I really preferred that all this is more transparent. ” Hard not to subscribe to the latest proposal …
- In iOS 5, the diagnostic service is accessed via the Settings menu, information, and Diagnostic Use.