The second half of 2012 wasn't very much fun for software developer CarrierIQ, after its stealthy and stubborn embedded handset software set off fire alarms among the security and privacy conscious. If the company was hoping 2012 would be better it doesn't appear to be the case, as several politicians have sent a letter to the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging that Congress investigate the company's practices. As of December the FTC was rumored to be investigating the company, and several carriers have been slowly backing away from using the company's software. From the letter:
"Data collection and transmission by Carrier IQ and similar software is widespread, and consumers appear to have little knowledge and even less control over the practice. There continue to be many unanswered questions about the handling of this data and the extent to which its collection, analysis, and transmission pose legitimate privacy concerns for the American public."
This latest push comes as HTC has announced they've kept their promise to remove the software from their phones on the Sprint network. "HTC can confirm that we're working with Sprint to provide maintenance releases that will remove Carrier IQ and provide security enhancements and bug fixes beginning in January," the company said in a statement to the press. Sprint stated they'd disabled Carrier IQ on 26 million devices last December.The hysteria surrounding CarrierIQ continues to be amusing given the complete lack of larger context in press coverage and Congressional "outrage." Carriers are already sharing/selling every shred of customer location and usage data that isn't nailed down to governments, companies, marketers and civil planners -- often with little to no real transparency. Efforts to create any real consumer protection laws on this front remain mired in Congressional dysfunction and lobbyist cash.
Yet somehow, like NebuAD before them, CarrierIQ has become a small company lightning rod for privacy issues neither carriers or Congress want to seriously address.
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