Andre Yoskowitz
17 Dec 2011 13:14
Sprint, the largest user of Carrier IQ software in the U.S., has said this week that is completely disabling the software in all of its devices.
The carrier admitted to using the software since 2006, and that it is installed on 26 million Sprint smartphones and tablets.
Due to recent customer concerns over the rootkit, Sprint says it has stopped collecting data using Carrier IQ, disabled it from all past devices, and will consider fully dropping it in the future. Sprint adds that they only used Carrier IQ to collect network- and device-related information for quality-of-service-related purposes.
"We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," read the carrier's statement to Senator Al Franken. "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."
Carrier IQ, which is installed in over 140 million devices, can read the state of your phone at all times, log all keystrokes, see who you called, see who you texted, see what terms you have searched for, and logs sleep/uptime.
As the carrier concludes: "To be clear, Sprint has not used Carrier IQ diagnostics to profile customers, to serve targeted advertising, or for any purpose not specifically related to certifying that a device is able to operate on our network. Sprint does not look at the content of customer messages, emails, photos, videos, keystrokes, etc. using the diagnostic tools offered by Carrier IQ."
You can read their full response to Senator Franken here: http://franken.senate.gov/files/letter/111214_Sprint_Response_to_Sen_Franken_CarrierIQ.pdf