- Report: #803575
Complaint Review: Carrier IQ - Mountain View, California
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Carrier IQ
1200 Villa Street, Suite 200 Mountain View,, 94041 California, United States of America
Phone:
1 650 625 5400
Web:
www.carrieriq.com
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Carrier IQ Consumer completely unaware of tracking sofware on Android and other smart phones, collects private data and no way to opt out, violation of right to privacy, Mountain View, , California
I just discovered that my Android cell phone has an application installed called Carrier IQ. If I had not read an article on Yahoo about how this application is used to spy on you I would not have known it exsisted. I found the application after reading the article and I was astounded at the amount of personal data it gathers about you. This application gathers your personal information such as it reads your browsers history and bookmars, reads calander events, reads contact data, reads sensitive log data, reads user defined dictionary, and write contact data.
2 it has whats called development tools where it limits the number of running processes
3 it tracks services that cost you money meaning it tracks your directly called phone numbers and send SMS messages.
4 is your location, your coarse (network-based) location, fine (GPS) location
5 is your messages it tracks modify Gmail, Read Gmail, read SMS or MMS, recieve WAP
6 is network communication under that it says control Near Field Communication, create Bluetooth connections, full internet access
7 is your accounts under this it reads manage the accounts list, use the authenication credientials of an account
8 is storage under this it reads modify/delete SD card contents
9 is hardware controls under this it reads change your audio setting, take pictures and videos
10 is phone calls under this it says read phone state and identity
11 is system tools under this it says bluetooth administration, change network connectivity, change wi-fi settings, change your UI settings, disable key lock, make application always run, modify global system setting,mount and unmount filesystems, prevent phone from sleeping, retrieve running applications, write access point name setting, write sync setting
There is no way to opt out of this application. They gather and use all this data about you without your permission or knowledge and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. I don't know about anyone else but in this country I thought my right to privacy was protected under the constitution of the United States. If anyone can help I would like some information on how to start a law suit against this company!
2 it has whats called development tools where it limits the number of running processes
3 it tracks services that cost you money meaning it tracks your directly called phone numbers and send SMS messages.
4 is your location, your coarse (network-based) location, fine (GPS) location
5 is your messages it tracks modify Gmail, Read Gmail, read SMS or MMS, recieve WAP
6 is network communication under that it says control Near Field Communication, create Bluetooth connections, full internet access
7 is your accounts under this it reads manage the accounts list, use the authenication credientials of an account
8 is storage under this it reads modify/delete SD card contents
9 is hardware controls under this it reads change your audio setting, take pictures and videos
10 is phone calls under this it says read phone state and identity
11 is system tools under this it says bluetooth administration, change network connectivity, change wi-fi settings, change your UI settings, disable key lock, make application always run, modify global system setting,mount and unmount filesystems, prevent phone from sleeping, retrieve running applications, write access point name setting, write sync setting
There is no way to opt out of this application. They gather and use all this data about you without your permission or knowledge and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. I don't know about anyone else but in this country I thought my right to privacy was protected under the constitution of the United States. If anyone can help I would like some information on how to start a law suit against this company!
3 Updates & Rebuttals
rippedoff
Janesille,Wisconsin,
USA
One last thought and point of view I forgot to make
#2Author of original report
Sat, December 03, 2011
Just one last thought I forgot to add to my last update and coming from a consumers prospective, as was stated in the rebuttle to my complaint this guy may be young and unexperienced and working for a competeing company but that in no way means that he was not intelligent enough or smart enough to figure it out. I myself have been unexperienced in many things, yet was still smart enough to figure them out on my own. And again this is merely my opinion at least until after the investigation is complete, I personally would not want to go public opening a can of worms of that magnitude without first being 100% certain of my discovery and without having the supportive evidence to back up my claim. The facts as we know them now:
1. The application was a kept secrete from the consumers who pay $100 or more a month for their service.
2. As soon as the software was discovered a cease and desist letter was sent.
3. The consumer's option to opt of having data collected which should be the consumers choice as it is the consumer who pays for the service, was stripped away.
4 The investigation is not yet complete
Of course carrier iq is going to deny the accusations and of course they are going to release their own statments to the alligations as to be expected. No corporate giant is going to freely admit guilt because to do so would means millions is lawsuits, so again it all boils down to a wait and see.
Thank you
rippedoff
Janesille,Wisconsin,
USA
Carrier IQ, Hidden application on smart phones, consumers unaware of it's existance, no way to opt out
#3Author of original report
Sat, December 03, 2011
All I can say is I will wait and watch as the story unfolds. I don't believe everthing out there, but I also have no trust in the big corporations and the 17 minute video along with the cease and desit letter made for a pretty convincing arguement. As far as I am concerned if they have nothing to hide then the consumer should be informed at the time of purchase that the application does exist on the phone along with exactly what data the application collects as well as specifics as to what happens to that data once it's collected and what it's used for also the consumer should then be given the option to choose to opt out because it should be MY decision to decide if I want my data gathered for ANY reason. Also and it's just my opinion, if there was nothing to hide then what was the purpose of the cease and desit letter. I know that when I have nothing to hide I don't have a problem with things coming out into the open but as I stated I will watch and wait as the story unfolds and then decide from there what actions I need to take to protect my rights as an American.
sanchanim
Tracy,California,
United States of America
Trevor Eckhart Hero Are Sharliton?
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, December 02, 2011
Please note that these findings are from a young inexperienced person claiming to be a wireless security expert. None of his resume titles gives him any knowledge in the wireless space, and he also works for a company which competes in this space so don't be fooled!
Please see official company responses regarding these false claims.
All Things Digital Article
PC Mag Report
Please also note Carrier IQ as based upon it reports works within the original end user agreement with it's carrier like AT&T or whomever. So no laws are being broken and and this report is baseless unless otherwise proven.
The person reporting this is by far not an expert and what he shows is not what is stored or transmitted according to the company.
He should get his facts straight before crying fire in a crowded theater.
