Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sprint disables Carrier IQ software on its handsets

At least Sprint manned up a bit and said that , yes they are using carrier IQ throughout their service.
Unlike others.
All people with smartphones should be pissed off about the whole Carrier IQ fiasco, the level that this was implemented at is unprecedented and extremely intrusive into peoples lives and privacy.

Each phone carrier should be sued for large sums of cash for knowingly doing what is essentially illegal for a hacker to do, and the money collected should be paid directly to the phone owners, NOT THE GOVERNMENT.

Computerworld
Sprint, the biggest user of Carrier IQ's software, said Friday it has disabled use of the tool in response to customer concerns.

The wireless carrier is no longer collecting data using the tool and is evaluating its options regarding the software going forward, the company said in an emailed statement.

"We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," the statement said. "At Sprint, we work hard to earn the trust of our customers and believe this course of action is in the best interest of our business and customers."

On Thursday, Sprint disclosed that it had installed Carrier IQ's controversial software on 26 million of its handsets. In a letter to Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday, Sprint said it had been using Carrier IQ's software since 2006. The company said it had been using the software only to collect network- and device-related information for quality-of-service-related purposes.

Franken had earlier sent a letter to Sprint, AT&T and several other companies demanding details on their use of Carrier IQ's software. Franken's letter was prompted by security researcher Trevor Eckhart's disclosure last month that Carrier IQ's software could be used to conduct highly intrusive tracking of mobile phone users.

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