How secure are your smartphone keystrokes?

Posted By on December 6, 2011

I’ve been following the Carrier IQ story after it was pointed out that they have been spying researching for carriers on some Android phones. The Verge did a follow up story that give all smartphone users reason to pause.

Carrier IQ has been around for six years and has been installed on over 141 million devices in that time. Which devices? Carrier IQ literally won’t say: the company cites its contracts with carriers as the reason it cannot tell you whether or not its software is installed on your phone. Even so, it’s seriously troubling to hear a company flat-out refuse to tell you on which phones its tracking software is installed and with which carriers and OEMs it has partnered. All too often, on issues of disclosure, data privacy, and technical implementation, Carrier IQ shifted responsibility onto its un-named partners.

As expected … there are and will be lawsuits. The company issued a press statement PDF on December 1st.

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