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Carrier iQ Goes Under, AT&T Buys Assets and Staff (techcrunch.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the reminding-you-whom-to-be-wary-of dept.

An anonymous reader writes: You may recall a company called CarrierIQ from when it angered tech-savvy internet users four years ago. They developed software that allowed explicit monitoring of anything happening on a cell phone, down to individual keystrokes. It was pre-installed on millions of phones at the time, and Carrier iQ unsuccessfully tried to silence the researchers working to uncover it. As the article notes, the company and its software "became synonymous with creepy, unseen monitoring of everything that you do on a smartphone on behalf of carriers and phone makers." Well, it seems they never really recovered. Carrier iQ seems to have evaporated. The bad news is that they sold most of their assets to AT&T, and handed off some employees as well. AT&T says they've continued to use Carrier iQ's software over the past few years to "improve the customer's network and wireless service experience."

15 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. AT&T buys staff? by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    ...Buys Assets and Staff...

    How does that work exactly?

    Either they bought the company, in which case the employees – who are not slaves – may elect to stay on.

    Or they extended job offers...

    Or is this just sloppy journalism?

    1. Re:AT&T buys staff? by darthsilun · · Score: 1

      Or sloppy writing trying to pass as journalism?

      Yes, I'm being snarky.

    2. Re:AT&T buys staff? by chipschap · · Score: 1

      Sloppy writing and poor journalism on Slashdot? Do you expect anything less?

    3. Re:AT&T buys staff? by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      It's probably a bunch of bullshit and CarrierIQ was an AT&T offshoot the entire time.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    4. Re:AT&T buys staff? by dattaway · · Score: 1

      Birds of a feather flock together!

    5. Re:AT&T buys staff? by laurencetux · · Score: 1

      sloppy way of saying that one of the assets they purchased was the contracts and employment agreements of the existing company.

      in effect they didn't just fire everybody or strip the company of the hard assets leaving the staff with the old company (now gutted).

    6. Re:AT&T buys staff? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      Actually, I do expect less. If sloppy writing and poor journalism are the only problems with a story on Slashdot, it's pretty much a win.

  2. As if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...I needed yet another reason to stay away from AT&T.

  3. AT&T the company... by meadow · · Score: 1

    AT&T, the company which said "Hey NSA, please come in and install your own equipment to violate the basic human rights of millions of peoples' communications running through our trunks".

    Anyone who would ever consider conducting business with the company has a serious problem. It would be like happily conducting business with the company that made Zyklon B.

    1. Re: AT&T the company... by unami · · Score: 1

      well, detia-degesch is still in business and even has an american branch, selling poison... http://www.degeschamerica.com/

  4. Re:Good by davester666 · · Score: 2

    see what? that it's carrying on? that low-level code in your phone is secretly recording virtually everything you do on that phone and uploading it to a server somewhere, with no restrictions on what that data can be used for?

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  5. Secure? by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    I wonder if anyone is foolish enough to consider their cellphone secure? I assume the bastard is hacked and reporting everything I do and where I am and who I'm talking to at all times. If I ever considered doing anything illegal I'd certainly leave the damn thing at home.

  6. To comply with government mandated backdoors by BlueCoder · · Score: 1

    Undoubtedly this is for government monitoring. When the government requests it they can no doubt secretly command your phone to download this app.

  7. Seems reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Are they trying to catch up to Verizon, and the much swept-under-the-rug Super Cookie?

  8. app store app? by mrgkeys · · Score: 1

    does this lurk inside ATT's Mark This Spot?