Companies love data. Every last of one of them from your local grocery store to Apple. Love it, want as much of it as possible. Heck, most of the major publicized features of iOS 5 put your data on Apple's servers (iMessage: your texts and MMS; Siri: pretty much every thing including searches, calendars, and email; iCloud: it is called iCloud).<p>Long and short of it is that if you want privacy beyond "I'm boring, so no one cares", a device that holds pretty much every important bit of info about you made by large corporations that is nearly always connected to the internet via carriers isn't really for you.
When I upgraded to iOS5, I was asked if I wanted to help Apple by automatically sending anonymous usage data. Doesn't this sound like <i>exactly</i> what CarrierIQ would be doing? If this is really what it is, then this is a total non-issue on iOS.<p>See here (for those not on iOS5): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxBsKO2lJQk#t=42s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxBsKO2lJQk#t=42s</a><p>But if this <i>is</i> CarrierIQ working there, then it means it's also being used in Europe. And it probably also means that the media will get in an iOS vs Android fight again instead of highlighting the issue. And FWIW, it surprises me much more that RIM would do crap like that.
Here are the result of the current investigations made by @chpwn <a href="http://blog.chpwn.com/post/13572216737" rel="nofollow">http://blog.chpwn.com/post/13572216737</a><p>I'm an iOS user and I'm concerned by this, I know that maybe these data are not sent to any remote server or maybe it depends on the carrier, but still I'm concerned that Apple would integrate a third party binary on its system. That's plain wrong for me. I want them to tell us what their phone collect, what their phone send to remote servers and for what uses. It is a matter of trust, trust is hard to gain and easy to lose and I think that Apple should handle this asset with great care.
Apple would like your help to improve the quality and performance of its products and services. Your device can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information and send it to Apple for analysis — but only with your explicit consent.<p>Diagnostic and usage information may include details about hardware and operating system specifications, performance statistics, and data about how you use your device and applications. None of the collected information identifies you personally. Personal data is either not logged at all or is removed from any reports before they’re sent to Apple. You can review the information by going to Settings, tapping General, tapping About and looking under Diagnostics & Usage.<p>If you have consented to provide Apple with this information, and you have Location Services turned on, the location of your device may also be sent to help Apple analyze wireless or cellular performance issues (for example, the strength or weakness of a cellular signal in a particular location). This diagnostic location data may include the location of your device once per day, or the location where a call ends. You may choose to turn off Location Services for Diagnostics at any time. To do so, open Settings, tap Location Services, tap System Services and turn off the Diagnostics switch.<p>You may also choose to turn off Diagnostics altogether. To do so, open Settings, tap General, tap About and choose “Don’t Send” under Diagnostics & Usage. <p>To help Apple’s partners and third-party developers improve their apps, products and services designed for use with Apple products, Apple may provide such partners or developers with a subset of diagnostic information that is relevant to that partner’s or developer’s app, product or service, as long as the diagnostic information is aggregated or in a form that does not personally identify you.<p>For more information, see Apple’s Privacy Policy at www.apple.com/privacy
I wish we could get straight answers from Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and others as to whether this tracking technology is located within devices they are selling, on what carriers and what is happening with the data, what is logged, where is it logged, what it shipped from the device up to remote servers, and exactly how is that data being used?
Apparently some folks on androidcentral picked it up a little more than a year ago. <a href="http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-optimus-s/45729-ever-wondered-what-iqagent.html" rel="nofollow">http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-optimus-s/45729-ever...</a>
Just another angle to approach the problem:<p>I suppose one way to fight this is to develop some sort of "multiple personalities" behaviour and habits.<p>There's "normal A" me, who goes to work every day, using the same route, checking the same webpages on route, doing the same web searches while at work, sending the same type of messages on IM during the day, etc, etc.<p>Then there's another me, "normal B", with his own habits and hobbies. But normal A and normal B should not overlap in terms of devices, friends, maybe even (online) behaviour. Location is bit more difficult, especially when you're at home. Home should be associated with only one "persona".<p>Once you make a conscious effort it might become easier with time, and thus hiding your real "identity".<p>Drawbacks?... Well, sounds bit like DID (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder</a>), so don't get caught accidentally :)
Why is Carrier IQ being made the villain here? From what I understand, they provide a service which has been abused by the <i>phone manufacturers</i> probably in conjunction with the carriers.<p>Logitech makes web-cams, would you hold them responsible if you found them hidden in hotel rooms and they were put there based on request by the CIA?<p>Let us hold the right people responsible. That will mean Apple, HTC, Samsung, RIM etc.
If you're interested, you can see the data the iPhone has collected so far -- Go to Settings -> General -> About -> Diagnostics -> Diagnostic & Usage Data.
I will give he befit of the doubt to apple right now. Remeber that Steve was talking about iAd and one of the benefits was that they hated how personal data was just taken from users. And privacy was a problem in apple' link up to FacEBook which didn't happen.<p>If it's active - its going to leave a huge huge mark.
Will Fortune Pay losses for (non Apple) Smartphone Manufacturers for costing them sales now?<p><a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/30/extremetech-carrier-iq-gate-is-best-reason-to-buy-an-iphone/" rel="nofollow">http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/30/extremetech-carrier-i...</a>
Several issues with this story:<p>1. The reference is found in a 2 year old version of iOS.<p>2. "IQAgent" sounds like things Apple could name, e.g.: I've seen no evidence that this has anything to do with CarrierIQ. There's been no disassembly (unless I missed it) so it quite possibly could simply be the fact that at one point Apple used the two letters "IQ" in an obscure file.<p>3. People watch the data iPhones transmit pretty closely, I know I have on occasion watched iOS devices talking to the cloud. If "every keystroke, every SMS" were being logged, I'd think people would have more than just a filename to go on.<p>4. As mentioned it seems this file is not used outside of diagnostic mode, which makes this much ado about nothing at this point.<p>I think its fine to be suspicious, but these things really should be approached with some objective detachment until actual transmission of user data that shouldn't happen is uncovered.<p>I don't know how many of the points above apply to the "indications" in android as well, but I think we should have more neutral, unemotional, and detached coverage of it as well.<p>I think spying on people is bad, and I think that americans are spied on more today than ever before. I think that's also why we have to be really careful about reporting it.<p>Edit: Deleted a digression that pointed out that the government is including language in recent legislation that allows them to collect data about us that previously would have been illegal. This was a distraction from my main point.
I imagine there might be other software/consulting companies in the business of stealthily collecting GB and PB's of personal data about consumers using wired and mobile networks who are thinking "Am I next?"<p>And I imagine some of their employees' minds might now be filling with thoughts about how to justify what they do, or to discount the need for anyone to make a big deal about what they do.<p>Will consumers care about what's booting when they turn on their phone, or what connections their phones are making? This will be very interesting.
It turns out the setting to disable statistics is a bit tricky to get to. On the latest version of iOS, I found it at Settings>General>About>Diagnostics & Usage.