Sprint Disabled Carrier IQ on its Phones
As federal investigations against Carrier IQ ramp up this week, Sprint said today it will be removing the company's software from its phones. The company has come into the public eye in recent weeks as folks on the internet found evidence that its software was collecting data, and even recording people's keystrokes, supposedly to gauge how well phones were working, but creating suspicion they might be collecting and using the data nefariously. The company has denied any claims of wrongdoing and says it will cooperate as governments begin to look into the affair. Sprint wasn't shy about saying today's decision was made with the concern of its customers, who probably didn't like finding out that an invisible something-or-other was maybe reading their text messages. From the Sprint statement:
We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected. We are further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint's diagnostic needs
They are the first company to announce they're eliminating the software, though a few phone companies like Verizon have already stated that they'd never included it in their phones.
