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Earlier this month we reported that Apple had issued a statement informing the press and users that it had, “stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will move it completely in a future software update.”
Since we made the report, the controversy involving Carrier IQ has escalated from being a minor ‘problem’ to a fully-fledged ‘scandal’, with class action lawsuits being filed against all of the major carriers in the US, some manufactures, and now even Europe becoming involved. So what exactly is all the Carrier IQ uproar about? And how may the scandal pan out?
The Carrier IQ degradation was initiated by Android researcher Trevor Eckhart, who endeavored to enlighten the public about Carrier IQ, by issuing a somewhat dull, uninspiring and hardly controversial report on the Android Security Test website. Talking about what Carrier IQ does, Trevor Eckhart wrote:

“Carrier IQ is able to query any metric from a device. A metric can be a dropped call because of lack of service. The scope of the word metric is very broad though, including device type, such as manufacturer and model, available memory and battery life, the type of applications resident on the device, the geographical location of the device, the end user’s pressing of keys on the device, usage history of the device, including those that characterize a user’s interaction with a device.”

I told you that Eckhart’s original Carrier IQ paper lacked controversy or excitement, yet it succeeded in worrying a large amount of smartphone users, initiated a string of related posts to emerge on the Internet, and has eventually resulted in lawsuits.
Apple, it seems, may have been too late when it issued a formal response on AllThingsD, advising the public that they have “stopped supporting Carrier IQ”. As Apple, along with Samsung, Motorola, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Carrier IQ have all been sued in a federal court by what the lawyers involved have cited to be a “cell phone tracking software scandal.”
According to a report published on BGR, Carrier IQ claims its software is intended to be a “Mobile Service Intelligence solutions that have revolutionized the way mobile operators and device vendors gather and manage information from end users.”
Despite Carrier IQ assertions of ‘innocence’, that it merely provides “Mobile Service Intelligence solutions”, in the wake of the wide coverage in the press and on blogs about the software’s capabilities, users’ are up in arms that their personal privacy may be being jeopardized by Carrier IQ software, as David Straite, one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit, stated on BGR:

“This latest revelation of corporate America’s brazen disregard for the digital privacy rights of its customers is yet another example of escalating erosion of liberty in this country. We are hopeful that the courts will allow ordinary customers the opportunity to remedy this outrageous breach.”

Now facing scrutiny and lawsuits in America, where, dare I say it, civil lawsuits are a common occurrence, is fairly predictable, but the fact that Carrier IQ is also facing scrutiny from European regulators, shows the severity of the scandal.
According to the Washington Post, the British Information Commissioner’s Office and the European Consumer’s Organization have expressed concern about the software. While the US carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have all confirmed that they use Carrier IQ to gather information about their network’s diagnostics, according to a report published by ZDNet, all UK carriers have denied using the Carrier IQ mobile data-logger.
The Carrier IQ saga continues and we’ll be sure to keep you updated.
[via AllThingsD, Washington Post, BGR]