You are casually listening to some music, when all of a sudden, flying ninja’s are at your doorstep demanding you to pay them for the stolen music you pirated! While that may seem farfetched(which it is), what you do on your phone is no secret. Gizmodo has posted that Carrier IQ, which can be found on the leading iPhone and Android phones, is recording your information! If you don’t believe me watch below. See proof around 9 minutes in.

So how does this SPYWARE work?

Gizmodo posted this:

“Carrier IQ’s software is installed in your phone at the deepest level. You don’t know it’s there. You are never warned this is happening. You can’t opt-in and you certainly can’t opt-out.

The commercial spyware sits between the user and the applications in the phone so, no matter how secure and private your apps are, the spyware intercepts anything you do. From your location to your web browsing addresses and passwords to the content of your text messages.

This even happens using a private Wi-Fi connection instead of the carrier 3G or 4G connection.

The company denied all this in a public statement (PDF):

While we look at many aspects of a device’s performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools

But the video clearly demonstrates that this is not true: Keystrokes submit unique key codes to Carrier IQ. Even secure connections are intercepted by the spyware, allowing it to record your moves in the open. These connections to the web are encrypted but, since Carrier IQ’s spyware sits between the browser and the user, it grabs it and sends it in plain text.

The spyware can even log your location, even if the user declines to allow an app to know where it is. The hidden Carrier IQ app ignores your desires, intercepts the data and gets your location anyway.”

I don’t know about any of you, but I want this gone!

~Joshua