Software recording data & keystrokes on millions of smartphones. Windows Phone exempt?

Carrier IQ

If you oasis't been post-obit the Carrier IQ saga, let us try to re-cap information technology for you. Going back to October, it was reported that software on HTC Android phones was recording information and equally Android Cardinal lightly put it, "storing information technology sloppily". Information that was collected included phone numbers, geolocation and business relationship names. It doesn't identify you per se with your name, but rather your device ID. All the same, people rightly raised a storm. Turns out that software had a name: Carrier IQ.

Fast forward to last week when Trevor Eckhart -- aka TrevE -- wrote in item what Carrier IQ was really doing on the phone. The visitor Carrier IQ did not like this, made some legal threats against him, prompting the Electronic Borderland Foundation to step in. Carrier IQ (or just CIQ) quickly backed down and things looked to be at a stand off. CIQ and then put out a press-release stating that their software

Does not record your keystrokes.
Does not provide tracking tools.
Does not inspect or written report on the content of your communications, such as the content of emails and SMSs.
Does not provide real-time data reporting to any customer.
Finally, we practise not sell Carrier IQ data to third parties.

Now, Eckhart has just published a 2d video (after the break) in response to CIQ'southward printing release which seemingly contradicts just about all of the higher up. In the 17 minute long video (it gets expert at about 8 minutes), Eckhart goes through and in existent-fourth dimension shows how keystrokes are recorded including phones numbers dialed, HTTPS data is sent unencrypted, text bulletin data is accessed and of course that you lot really don't know that this app is running. All of this is performed on a stock Sprint EVO 3D and EVO 4G. What makes all of this troubling is the fact that (a) you aren't told nigh it (b) can't uninstall the software. Y'all need to root the phone and load on a new, custom OS to get rid of it...

The software has, perchance unsurprisingly, been establish on mostly Android devices but as well BlackBerry ~~and Nokia (presumably Symbian)~~. The company Carrier IQ states that their software is mostly a tool for the carriers to understand how phones are existence used to better improve the experience, only obviously what'south been revealed in the video below is a tad alarming, to say the to the lowest degree.

Rivera on Carrier IQ

At this time, Windows Phone seems to be exempt from such software equally we have seen no reports nor evidence to brand u.s.a. believe this is an event with our OS. That seems to be because Windows Telephone OS is controlled by Microsoft directly and OEMs/Carriers cannot significantly alter the base code. Still, we're contacting some people who may know more than on the topic, so we'll keep you posted.

Update: We pinged ChevronWP7 member Rafael Rivera on the matter. He chimed back noting he has found no show for CIQ on Windows Telephone, so nosotros look to be in the articulate. Once over again, nosotros can go out this to the Android oversupply to sort out.

In the meantime, bust out your tinfoil hats and sound off in comments.