back to article Carrier IQ meets feds 'to educate them'

The makers of the controversial smartphone app Carrier IQ have reportedly been quizzed by federal regulators over concerns that its technology tracked user activity and uploaded data to mobile operators behind the back of consumers. The Washington Post reports that senior Carrier IQ execs have met with representatives from US …

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  1. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)
    Stop

    Carrier IQ meets with feds 'to educate them'

    C-IQ: Ok guys here how it works

    <explanation>

    FTC: We don't get it that still sounds like snooping

    C-IQ: Ah, well you've not seen the supplementary handy-sized notes yet, here they're written on these small pieces of paper which look remarkably like $100 bills. Keep taking these notes until you feel you understand our position.

  2. Bill Neal
    Trollface

    Coward

    Think Coward is nervous?

    1. Figgus
      Trollface

      It makes me chuckle that the veep is A Coward....

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If the Fed's are asking for the data, Carrier IQ is a wiretap program

    Folks,

    The answer is plan and simple. If the Feds are asking for the data during an investigation, then Carrier IQ is a wire tap program. Otherwise they would not bother to file an FOI to get the data.

    This clearly a privacy intrusion issue and Carrier IQ should be removed from all phones UNTIL it can be proved otherwise.

    By the way, nice choice of Oxymoron, since "Educating the Fed's is somewhat impossible.

    By the way, please remove the "anonymous cowards cannot choose theire icon from the typing window. Anyone posting here knows they cannot choose an Icon if anonymous but we would like to see what it is we are typing while we do so.

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      Boffin

      This is not a Reg problem

      I gave the AC thing a look out of curiosity, and for me the notification appears over the icon grid. You need to fix your browser.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      FOI request

      "If the Feds are asking for the data during an investigation, then Carrier IQ is a wire tap program. Otherwise they would not bother to file an FOI to get the data."

      I don't think you understand how FOI requests work. The Freedom of Information Act is a means by which the public request information from the government, not a government agency requesting information from a company.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I think this answers your concerns to my comment on the FBI using the captured data.....

        "Controversy over Carrier IQ's mobile network diagnostic tool reignited earlier this week after it emerged, via freedom of information requests, that the FBI is using data captured by the app."

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Carrier IQ insists, that its technology is not designed as a tool for lawful interception"

    Do you have that as an actual quote from Carrier IQ?

    If it is not designed as a tool for lawful interception, then, logically, it is designed for interception which is unlawful.

    It seems odd to me that they don't take the path of "we only make the software, we don't install it anywhere or get any of the results... talk to the carriers"

    1. djs

      In the same vein, I wonder if Carrier IQ have stopped beating their wives yet. I don't suppose anybody thought to ask them?

  5. Bumpy Cat
    FAIL

    Where there's smoke ...

    Carrier IQ's initial reaction - to sue the researcher - is the most damning response possible. If they had simply called him up and given their fluffy diagnostic-tool answer in the first place, none of this would have happened. It's this response more than anything else that makes me suspicious.

    1. Shades

      Thats what...

      ...I've been saying all along.

  6. dotdavid
    Facepalm

    Diagnostics

    If it were just for diagnostics, it would install as a normal app with a launcher and everything. When something went wrong with your handset or service, the customer service rep need only say to you "we need to do some analysis, can you launch CarrierIQ on your phone which will send us the data we need?" and the data would be there. Either that or it would collect data (after asking your permission) and only send it when you've explicitly said to send it - i.e. when the customer service rep has asked you to.

    That's the only privacy-conscious way of doing things. Nefarious or not, they should have thought things through much more.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems'

    What is in question is not the original design, whose accuracy no one outside Carrier IQ can testify to, but rather what the software is being used for and even more importantly what it _can_ be used for if the telcos so wish, all without prior concent or even knowledge of by the user.

    As for the 'bug'.. well I hear Apple also had various 'bugs' with their location data, as did Google with their wireless sniffing cars. It's the new fall guy whenever any software company gets caught doing something they shouldn't be. "It's a bug you see, that's all. Nothing to see here move along now"

    1. h 2

      VISA are having problems with Bugs at the moment

      Visa are having problems with Bugs at the moment

  8. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    His lips were moving

    I still don't believe a word the coward says.

  9. BillG
    Facepalm

    Uh, - DUH??????

    "Carrier IQ insists, that its technology is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems"

    Why do carriers need a Third Party to help them diagnose handset and network problems, when the data Carrier IQ sends and receives is THE SAME DATA THE CARRIER sends and receives over IT'S OWN NETWORK?

    Why is a third party trying to do what the carrier already does with their own network?

    Doesn't Carrier IQ's explanation make their application ridiculously redundant?

    1. P. Lee
      Big Brother

      Educating the FEDs

      You need to make it illegal not to use our software or we'll both be worse off!

  10. FozzyBear
    FAIL

    I don't give a damn

    'is not designed as a tool for lawful interception but as a means for carriers to diagnose handset and network problems'

    Send out all the press releases you like, talk until you lose your voice on how altruistic your application is.

    It is what it can be used for that matters. Regardless of the purpose of collecting that data, if it is recording information that is in any other forum, medium or setting would be protected by privacy laws then you are, by law, preaching those privacy laws, no exceptions.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Duck season

    We can only hope the feds are less gullible than el Reg.

    Paris, because even she knows what to call something that walks and talks like a duck ...

  12. shawnfromnh

    Actually that last bit turns out to be not entirely true because the software firm was obliged to admit that a security bug meant its application did collect the contents of SMS messages in some circumstances. An SMS message would get embedded in signalling if, for example, a user received a message during a call. The data would be encoded and not easily readable by a human

    Not easily readable by a human...

    He's in a call now so call him and route the SMS to the office PC for decoding.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Carrier IQ meets with feds 'to educate them'

    Tech: "What project code shall I book this meeting to on my timesheet?"

    CEO: "Tough call. Sales & Marketing or Client Social."

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