What is Carrier IQ?

[tommymsw]

I am going to put a video on Youtube showing that when I run my text message program, I can read ALL of my text messages. And when I press on the Phone button I can see ALL of my call history... and when I open my browser I can see ALL of my browsing history and bookmarks and when I open my Gallery program I can see ALL of my pictures.. I wonder if people will freak out over this new information? lol

If somebody hacked my phone, all of this information would be available to them! (ok, I am being sarcastic.... but seriously it is the same thing)

If you don't want this program on your phone... root it and put on a custom Rom. It will be gone. But know this... ALL of the same information will STILL be stored on your phone. But this particular program will no longer be there. O

 

[bw75]

harold42483... You actually DID agree to it when you accepted the initial agreement. Besides... even WITHOUT this particular program... EVERY phone has a similar program on it. As does your PC, you TV, your _________ place electronic device here. This particular program keeps the data for the purposes of repairing your device if anything went wrong with it but ANY phone would need to keep track of EVERYTHING you do in order to be able to do what you want it to do. This is like complaining that your GPS in your car remembers where you went! Or knows where you live. Or that your cable box knows what channels you subscribe to or remembers the last channel you watched when you press the "last" button.

This program does not send any of the information to anybody. It stays on your phone for the purpose of your phone. YES if somebody hacked into/stole your phone they could read it... but they would also be able to just read your texts right out of the program.... they could also see all of your pictures and your phone history.

Don't lose you phone or place malicious software on it and you have no worries. If somebody broke into your home while you were at work, they could steal your stuff too! Could you sue your mortgage company because you were not aware that could happen?

You can look at your Sprint bill and see EVERY text and call you made (this means they have this information on their website). But you would NEVER find a phone that did not store your information on it... You bough the phone to do EXACTLY that!

It IS transmitted to third parties and collected. It's right there on Carrier IQ's site...

http://www.carrieriq.com/overview/index.htm

 

[bw75]

If you don't want this program on your phone... root it and put on a custom Rom. It will be gone.

And in doing so, you void your warranty. Smart move if you pay the monthly insurance.



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[UncleVanya]

Please consider updating this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/an...iq-please-list-confirmed-device-status-2.html with whatever information is found.

This device is one that appears to be infested with Carrier IQ but it would be nice to have member reports confirming that the various detection tools work etc.

 

[harold42483]

harold42483... You actually DID agree to it when you accepted the initial agreement. Besides... even WITHOUT this particular program... EVERY phone has a similar program on it. As does your PC, you TV, your _________ place electronic device here. This particular program keeps the data for the purposes of repairing your device if anything went wrong with it but ANY phone would need to keep track of EVERYTHING you do in order to be able to do what you want it to do. This is like complaining that your GPS in your car remembers where you went! Or knows where you live. Or that your cable box knows what channels you subscribe to or remembers the last channel you watched when you press the "last" button.

This program does not send any of the information to anybody. It stays on your phone for the purpose of your phone. YES if somebody hacked into/stole your phone they could read it... but they would also be able to just read your texts right out of the program.... they could also see all of your pictures and your phone history.

Don't lose you phone or place malicious software on it and you have no worries. If somebody broke into your home while you were at work, they could steal your stuff too! Could you sue your mortgage company because you were not aware that could happen?

You can look at your Sprint bill and see EVERY text and call you made (this means they have this information on their website). But you would NEVER find a phone that did not store your information on it... You bough the phone to do EXACTLY that!

I agreed for sprint to do that not carrier IQ

 

[tommymsw]

It IS transmitted to third parties and collected. It's right there on Carrier IQ's site...

Carrier IQ :: Overview

Click to view quoted image

As I stated before... I am FULLY aware that this a a diagnostics program and that it stores information to be used when repairing your phone and YES is CAN send information for diagnostics purposes if you tell it to. What it does NOT do is send any information without you intending to do so.

You talk about having insurance on your phone but you would NEVER bring your phone in for repair right? because then they would have access to all your information! So why bother having the insurance on it?

Never bring your PC in for repair either... people could see what you are up to. Your virus protection software ALSO scans your computer/phone and sends the log to the virus company so they can fix the problems. This is nothing new here people. Like I said... if you give somebody your phone OR if you place it in debugging mode and send the debug file to anybody, they can see the information. Short answer... don't ever do either of those things! Disable all the "cookies" on your browser too! For that matter don't even go online... people will know you are there, they also know what OS you have, what browser you use... WHO CARES! When you drive down the street people see what car you have and if they want to follow you, they know where you are going! Big deal!

And you can unroot your phone (in most cases) just as easily as you rooted it so you would NOT be voiding your warranty.

And yes... you did agree to the carrier IQ thing in your agreement. Nobody reads those things. It may not mention the program by name, but it will say that there is diagnostic software on your phone that you may CHOOSE to send into them when they are helping you salve problems on your phone.

but once again... it does NOT send any information unless you tell it to!

 

[tommymsw]

Why do you guys care that this ONE program stores information but you don't care that the text software and email software ALSO store your information? If you removed this program your phone would STILL have ALL of the EXACT same information stored on it! You want that information on there! This is nothing more than a scare tactic somebody came up with top freak people out who don't understand the technology. we see this ALL the time:

the internet provider knows your IP address... go to this website and see that this site knows where you are and your IP address.

Your phone IP address was once owned by homeland security (like most IP addresses)

When you buy online your credit card number gets sent across data lines (EXACTLY the same way it gets sent when you buy in a store)

Cookies track if you have been to a website before so the site remembers you (so?)

When you called on the old lan line phones they knew where you were too! Its not a conspiracy... they need to know so they can connect you!

I mean... what is the actual harm here? You may call Sprint with a phone problem and if you CHOOSE, they can diagnose your phone remotely? Don't call them then!

 

[M3wThr33]

When you buy online your credit card number gets sent across data lines (EXACTLY the same way it gets sent when you buy in a store)

You have absolutely no clue how a computer works and anything about technology if you say that.

The problem isn't about recording information.

The problem is that Carrier IQ is a third-party company that was transmitting and STORING the data insecurely so that ANY PROGRAM could potentially get access to it. Install one bad program, and they have access to a LOAD more stuff than simply your phone number.

You can install a free apk someone made to detect this and SEE FOR YOURSELF how easy it is to retrieve this data with NO PERMISSIONS NEEDED. Right now ANY DEV ON ANDROID can update their app and pull this information.

Do you not see a problem there?

 

[tommymsw]

Um... is that not ALSO true with EVERY app on your phone? I mean I installed Handsent text messaging app and it had NO problem accessing the text messages on my phone? YES I said this program could be hacked... so could ANY program on your phone. you don't think that if I installed an infected text message program that they couldn't see my texts? I mean ANY malicious software could hack ANY part of your phone... email, texts, call history, photos.... Does the Carrier IQ program collect any data that was NOT on your phone already? Like your house key? or pictures on your walls?

My point is that ALL of the information on the IQ program is on your phone anyway and no matter where it is it is open to attack. Are you suggesting that ONLY phones with this program are open to hacking?

I don't care if I install an app that shows me what data it collects. I told you... i installed a text program and it shows me what texts I send. I installed a browser and it shows me what sites I went to. How is that ANY different?

 

[tommymsw]

It would bug me if I could see stuff there that I can't see anywhere else. So I can see my texts on the iQ program? (I don't even know if that is true) but who cares? I can see it on my text program too! I just don't see how this is any different that anything else on your phone. If I chose too... I could send all of my old text messages to somebody... if my phone got hacked I could do the same. If I chose to, I would send the IQ information to somebody, if my phone got hacked, it could do the same....

How is that any different?

 

[bw75]

As I stated before... I am FULLY aware that this a a diagnostics program and that it stores information to be used when repairing your phone and YES is CAN send information for diagnostics purposes if you tell it to. What it does NOT do is send any information without you intending to do so.

You talk about having insurance on your phone but you would NEVER bring your phone in for repair right? because then they would have access to all your information! So why bother having the insurance on it?

Never bring your PC in for repair either... people could see what you are up to. Your virus protection software ALSO scans your computer/phone and sends the log to the virus company so they can fix the problems. This is nothing new here people. Like I said... if you give somebody your phone OR if you place it in debugging mode and send the debug file to anybody, they can see the information. Short answer... don't ever do either of those things! Disable all the "cookies" on your browser too! For that matter don't even go online... people will know you are there, they also know what OS you have, what browser you use... WHO CARES! When you drive down the street people see what car you have and if they want to follow you, they know where you are going! Big deal!

And you can unroot your phone (in most cases) just as easily as you rooted it so you would NOT be voiding your warranty.

And yes... you did agree to the carrier IQ thing in your agreement. Nobody reads those things. It may not mention the program by name, but it will say that there is diagnostic software on your phone that you may CHOOSE to send into them when they are helping you salve problems on your phone.

but once again... it does NOT send any information unless you tell it to!

Are you serious? Yes I would get my phone repaired. What you can't seem to grasp is this program logs IN PLAIN TEXT everything you are doing. EVEN encrypted sites. So your secure data isn't so secure is it? All it takes is a hacker to find an exploit in Carrier IQ and they will have access to data from millions of phones. And since what it transmits isn't encrypted, they can view, clear as day, credit card info, etc. This has absolutely nothing to do with what YOU are able to see on your phone, but what the third parties paying carrier IQ for this info can.


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[tommymsw]

Are you serious? Yes I would get my phone repaired. What you can't seem to grasp is this program logs IN PLAIN TEXT everything you are doing. EVEN encrypted sites. So your secure data isn't so secure is it? All it takes is a hacker to find an exploit in Carrier IQ and they will have access to data from millions of phones. And since what it transmits isn't encrypted, they can view, clear as day, credit card info, etc. This has absolutely nothing to do with what YOU are able to see on your phone, but what the third parties paying carrier IQ for this info can.


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So again... you are saying that ONLY phones with this program are open to hacking? If I don't have it on my phone I can't be infected my malicious software that could see everything on my phone?

 

[tommymsw]

Would one of you guys show me where it says that this collects credit card information? I am Googling like crazy and can't find anything more than people saying "who knows? maybe this could even store your credit card information"?.

Everything I see that is stores is the usual crap. Nothing that bothers me and nothing I don't think I am open to attack from anyway.

Not like we are not 100% aware that credit card numbers get hacked from sites all the time anyway!

 

[bw75]

So again... you are saying that ONLY phones with this program are open to hacking? If I don't have it on my phone I can't be infected my malicious software that could see everything on my phone?

No, that isn't what I said.

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[tommymsw]

This is what I see when I investigated it:
Carrier IQ would record the fact that a text message was sent correctly, for example, but the company "cannot record what the content of the SMS was." Similarly, Carrier IQ records where you were when a call dropped, but cannot record the conversation, and can determine which applications drain battery life but cannot capture screen shots,

"While 'security researchers' have identified that we examine many aspects of a device, our software does not store or transmit what consumers view on their screen or type,"

 

[bw75]

This is what I see when I investigated it:
Carrier IQ would record the fact that a text message was sent correctly, for example, but the company "cannot record what the content of the SMS was." Similarly, Carrier IQ records where you were when a call dropped, but cannot record the conversation, and can determine which applications drain battery life but cannot capture screen shots,

"While 'security researchers' have identified that we examine many aspects of a device, our software does not store or transmit what consumers view on their screen or type,"

Here you go. Watch video for visual proof and read as well.http://androidsecuritytest.com/features/logs-and-services/loggers/carrieriq/carrieriq-part2/

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[tommymsw]

Seems like people are just freaked out that there was software running on their phone they were not aware of. But I would bet that there are TONS of programs running that the user is not aware of. How many people know that much about what makes a cell phone work?

 

[tommymsw]

Here you go. Watch video for visual proof and read as well.CarrierIQ Part 2 | Android Security Test

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Yes I saw the ONE Youtube video... I have also seen people diving into swimming pools from a 40 story building and doing all kinds of crazy things. What I know about the video is people complaining that nobody else can seem to repeat it. At this time, he seems to be the ONLY guy who is able to do this?

 

[Led Zappa]

In other news: Browsers have the ability to remove your browsing history for no reason at all and encryption is useless. *rollseyes*

 

[tommymsw]

I read the the ENTIRE printed transcript from that guys example and I could not find ANY text messages, passwords or credit card numbers anywhere! Am I just missing it?

I mean how can people say "it collects your text messages, passwords and credit card numbers" without being able to prove that it does that?

Can you just "say" things and make it true? This is my point... I was not interested in the conspiracy theories... i was looking for some truth! I see people freaking out over the "idea" of something. Seems to me that this is not an example of how evil this program is, but rather what suckers people are for any idea you put in their head.

I am as angry as the next guy when something happens bad... but I am not going to get in an uproar because people are making unsubstantiated claims. That's what I wanted was some PROOF by somebody who knows what they are talking about, Not people repeating an article they read that said "this could possibly do this even though it doesn't do it".

I mean that is true with everything! My phone (in theory) could drive my car... but it can't!