Carrier IQ Drops Empty Legal Threat, Apologizes to Security Researcher

I used the ones from BD and Lookout. Both came back clean. AT&T Samsung Captivate.

 

Thanks for the feedback - good to know your device is clean.

 

PCWorld:

European Regulators Start Investigating Carrier IQ

Read more at above link.

 

Carrier IQ: Not Just an Android Issue

Full article

 

Carrier IQ: The Real Story
http://vulnfactory.org/blog/2011/12/05/carrieriq-the-real-story/

 

^Good find. Nice article.
His 'points to be addressed' are further food for thought also;

1. Consumers need to be able to opt out of any sort of data collection. This option would need to be provided by carriers and handset manufacturers.
2. There needs to be more transparency on the part of carriers in terms of what data is being collected from users.
3. There needs to be third-party oversight on what data is collected to prevent abuse.
4. The verbose debugging logs demonstrated in Trevor Eckhart’s video are a risk to privacy, and should be corrected by HTC (the author of the responsible code) by disabling these debugging messages.
5. The legality of gathering full URLs with query parameters and other data of this nature should be examined.

It will be interesting to see what other metrics are being used/have been used by carriers besides the ones mentioned for a (carrier-specific) Samsung Epic 4G Touch.

 

Researchers Say Carrier IQ Not Logging Texts or Emails, But Has Some Worrisome Capabilities
Bitdefender tool to detect Carrier IQ
Only U.S. customers targeted with Carrier IQ?

 

8 companies hit with lawsuit over Carrier IQ software

 

Carrier IQ: Assets & My fantasy best case resolution.

I was wondering what Carrier IQ was worth. This is what I found. Valued at under $100 million as of Oct 27, 2011.

Source
http://www.bridgescale.com/uncategorized/carrier-iq-namedas-an-innovative-business-analytics-company-under-100m-to-watch-by-leading-analyst-firm

Carrier IQ Named as an Innovative Business Analytics Company Under $100M to Watch by Leading Analyst Firm
Recognition Affirms Carrier IQ’s Mobile Intelligence Software as Critical Platform for Mobile Operators and Device Manufacturers

Mountain View, CA, October 27, 2011 – Carrier IQ has been selected as an Innovative Business Analytics Company to Watch Under $100M by leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC.

In its report, “Innovative Business Analytics Companies Under $100M to Watch, 2011” (Doc #230923, October, 2011), the firm cited three key drivers making an impact in the Business Analytics marketplace, including mobile analytics, cloud-based analytics and collaborative decision management. The Innovative Business Analytics Companies to Watch Under $100M list included companies that are successfully meeting the needs of customers in each prediction category. Carrier IQ was recognized in the Mobile Analytics category.

“New technologies are eliminating boundaries between content and data to enable pervasive access to all relevant information. Contributing to this innovation is a group of small companies with the vision and technology to have an impact on the marketplace,” said Henry Morris, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Software and Services Research at IDC.

Carrier IQ’s Mobile Intelligence platform is currently deployed with more than 150 million devices worldwide. It enables mobile service providers and device manufacturers to solve business and technology issues throughout the development and deployment lifecycles of networks and devices by delivering mission-critical intelligence on how services perform and how devices actually work in the hands of end users.

“Carrier IQ’s Mobile Intelligence platform puts the customer at the center of decision-making by providing a detailed understanding of the customer’s experience,” said Larry Lenhart, CEO, Carrier IQ. “Recognition by objective third parties like IDC provides additional confirmation of the value of our analytics capabilities in delivering tangible results for the most critical business objectives in the mobile industry.”


I figured as much. My conclusions: So let's best case scenario this. Carrier IQ falls on it's sword & agrees to liquidate & pay all those affected. Carrier IQ is on 140 million phones. Carrier IQ falls on their sword - extremely doubtful, complete liquidation of assets raises $100 million - impossible & no lawyer or fees - impossible. Every one of 140 million handset owners get $0.73 each at most. Whoopee! All the deep pockets are insulated & separated.

 

Re: Carrier IQ: Assets & My fantasy best case resolution.

Best case scenario: Business as usual
Worst case scenario: They maybe change how the logging works and it costs them a few thousand dollars. They spend another few thousand on PR.

http://vulnfactory.org/blog/2011/12/05/carrieriq-the-real-story/

 

Removing CarrierIQ Is A Really Bad Idea For Most Mobile Phone Users

 

Carrier IQ downplays 2010 patent request

 

Google's Schmidt strikes Carrier IQ off Xmas card list

More

 

Thanks for the update!


----
rich

 

My pleasure

 

Carrier IQ: A privacy tempest of what size?

 

Lots of hype, i really want to read the thread bu ti'll do it tomorrow after work, too late and i'm sleepy

 

"FOI request turns up Carrier IQ surprise" : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/12/carrier_iq_and_the_fbi/

 

Carrier IQ Says Bug Can Cause Some SMS to Be Recorded in Coded Form

 

Some Facts About Carrier IQ - EFF

 

Why Transparent Tracking Needs Its Own App (2 web pages).

-- Tom

 

FBI never sought Carrier IQ data, director says
Carrier IQ moves to allay fears of its tracking software

 

Gizmodo has a complete list of phones with the Carrier IQ malware.

 

FBI contacted Carrier IQ