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Researchers Say Carrier IQ Isn't Logging Data, Texts
Trailrunner7 writes "Security researchers who have investigated the inner workings of the Carrier IQ software and its capabilities say the application has some powerful, and potentially worrisome capabilities, but as it's currently deployed by carriers it doesn't have the ability to record SMS messages, phone calls or keystrokes. However, the researchers note there is still potential for abuse of the information that's being gathered, whether by the carriers themselves or third parties who can access the data legitimately or through a compromise of a device. Jon Oberheide, a security researcher who has done a lot of work on Android devices, also analyzed several versions of the Carrier IQ software and found the software has the ability to record some information, but that doesn't mean it's actually doing so. That part is up to each individual carrier. However, he says the ability to collect such data is a dangerous thing. 'There is a lot of capability to collect sensitive data, which is dangerous in any scenario,' Oberheide said in an interview. 'It's up to the carriers to use the software as they choose, but you could sort of put some blame on Carrier IQ. But they put it on the carriers.'"
For those who don't want to trust in the good will of Carrier IQ or carriers themselves, here are a couple ways to get it off your phone.
This was known days ago. Of course that fucks up your nice little conspiracy theory, so it wasn't posted.
The URL is not encrypted when it travels over SSL (https), nether is anything on the request string. So, if you ever see something https://myfavoritebankingsite.com?username=sillyperson&password=1234 then you need to know that the username and password are sent in the 'clear'. Just to be clear, I mean unencrypted.
If the URL was encrypted then the packet would have to wander across the entire network hoping to find its destination.