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CarrierIQ: Most Phones Ship With "Rootkit"

Posted by Unknown on from the your-keystrokes-may-be-monitored-for-qa-purposes dept.

First time accepted submitter Kompressor writes "According to a developer on the XDA forums, TrevE, many Android, Nokia, and BlackBerry smartphones have software called Carrier IQ that allows your carrier full access into your handset, including keylogging, which apps have been run, URLs that have been loaded in the browser, etc." Since this was submitted, a few more details have come to light. The software was designed to give carriers useful feedback on aggregate usage patterns, but the software runs as root and the privacy implications are pretty severe.

6 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't Matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It doesn't matter because Android is open.

    That's all that matters.

    1. Re:Doesn't Matter by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

      in soviet software land, software programs you!

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  2. Re:Cyanogen by Pieroxy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tell that to my Mom. You're in for a rough ride, I'll tell you that much!

    --
    Write boring code, not shiny code!
  3. Re:Cyanogen by gparent · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm always in for a rough ride with your mom. Oh, you mean to install Cyanogenmod?

  4. Re:Cyanogen by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Plus, as any Aussie can tell you, rooting a phone is more than little bit kinky.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  5. Re:but but but... Apple by Unoriginal_Nickname · · Score: 5, Funny

    Has anyone?