By Martha Neil
ABA Journal
Eight major defendants are accused in a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware of violating wiretap law via their common use of Carrier IQ technology.
When smartphones equipped with Carrier IQ are switched on, the software can, the lawsuit contends, “collect data about a user’s location, application use, Web browsing habits, videos watched, texts read and even the keys they press.”
Whether Carrier IQ actually is used by the defendants to collect data on all of these fronts, however, is doubtful, according to CNET and the Security Watch page of PC Magazine.
And, even if the phones of some 150 million users are collecting all of this data, it appears that the data is probably not being used, at least right now, to violate individuals’ privacy. Carriers insist that the software simply makes it possible to diagnose network issues and keep smartphones running smoothly.
Nonetheless, consumers and lawmakers in the United States and Europe want to know why smartphones may be transmitting data about users’ locations and Internet use without their knowledge or permission, according to Computerworld.
Carrier IQ says the data its software gathers is stored by the phone companies or at Carrier IQ’s facilities. It doesn’t sell the data to third parties. Phone companies, of course, already are custodians of a wealth of private information, including whom you call, where you surf and what your text messages say.
The brouhaha started a few weeks ago, when technology blogger and programmer Trevor Eckhartreported that smartphones are providing carriers with private information about individual users. Eckhart documented Carrier IQ’s workings with videos on his blog. The software company threatened him with a lawsuit if he didn’t take the information down. The Electronic Frontier Foundation took on Eckhart’s case, and the company backed down.
Eckhart posted another video this week, showing Carrier IQ’s software logging keystrokes on an HTC EVO 3D from Sprint. Apple Inc., which is named as a defendant in the new case, along with Carrier IQ Inc. and six wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers, says it is working on a fix to address consumers’ concerns and remove the software as early as today. However, the company declined to comment on the case, as did Carrier IQ.
For now, there’s no easy way to uninstall the Carrier IQ software without unsanctioned third-party software.
Federal suits have also been filed in the Northern District of California and the Eastern District of Missouri, reports eWeek.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation of Carrier IQ, Congressman Edward Markey, D-Mass, cited “serious concerns about the Carrier IQ software and whether it is secretly collecting users’ personal information, such as the content of text messages.”
Other lawmakers also have expressed concern and called for further investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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