Class-action Carrier IQ suit targets Apple, HTC, Samsung, carriers & more
Joining Apple among the list of defendants in the new lawsuit filed by Delaware-based Sianni & Straite LLP are fellow device makers HTC, Samsung and Motorola. In addition, U.S. carriers AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have been targeted for selling phones that include Carrier IQ software.
The class-action suit was filed in federal court in Wilmington, Del., accusing the companies of an "unprecedented breach in the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users." The three carriers and four smartphone manufacturers targeted are charged with violating the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
"Defendants Samsung, Apple, Motorola, and HTC pre-install Carrier IQ software on cell phones used by its customers on the AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint networks," the complaint reads.
Carrier IQ and its software gained attention last week when Trevor Eckhart, a security researcher, found that it runs in the background on a stock HTC handset, even if the phone is in airplane mode and operating over Wi-Fi. The Carrier IQ software was tracked logging every action on the device, including keys pressed and numbers dialed.
Apple issued a statement to say that Carrier IQ has not been a part of "most of its products" since the release of iOS 5 in October. Inactive remnants of the Carrier IQ software do remain in iOS 5, but Apple has said they will be removed entirely in a future software update.
In addition to the new class-action lawsuit, Apple is also under scrutiny from German regulators, who made a formal request last week to Apple for more information. But while Apple has apparently moved away from Carrier IQ with the release of iOS 5, a number of handset currently available running the Google Android operating system have been found to run the data logging software.
Google has distanced itself from the controversy and stated that it does not include Carrier IQ software in its own devices that run the stock version of Android, including Nexus phones and the Xoom tablet. However, because Android is open source, carriers can require that hardware makers, like HTC and Samsung, include Carrier IQ on the devices they ship.
Carrier IQ has said that it's the carriers who decide what data is being collected and how long it is stored. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have said they rely on Carrier IQ's data to improve wireless network performance, while Verizon — which was not named in the class-action suit — has denied that it uses Carrier IQ in any of its handsets.
63 Comments
That didn't take long.
That didn't take long.
Of course not. The economy's been tough even for lawyers and they're the ones that benefit the most financially in a class action suit. A consumer is lucky to get $5.00 towards a cell-bill, or perhaps a certificate for some accessory. A great scam if you can pull it off.
lawyer scum. Blast as many companies as possible with a lawsuit and see what falls out. iOS has limited logging and is OFF by default.
let see people are upset they get an almost free phone in exchange they gave up their rights to privacy, how is this any different than everyone with a free email account on Google or having a Facebook account and all your personal information about what you do each day can be data mined and sold.
The solution to this problem is do not take free things, remember nothing is free there is always a cost and something that cost if more than the $ leaving your bank account.
1) Once Apple is included a lawsuit is inevitable.
2) What I don't understand is why the focus is on Carrier IQ. It's just one company of many that offer analytic software and APIs. We should be focusing on how all OSes, apps, vendors, and carriers monitor our usage, making legal agreements transparent as to what is being recorded, and clear instruction as to how you can opt-out.
Of course not. The economy's been tough even for lawyers and they're the ones that benefit the most financially in a class action suit. A consumer is lucky to get $5.00 towards a cell-bill, or perhaps a certificate for some accessory. A great scam if you can pull it off.
Thos settlement with result in a $20 million for the lawyers and a 10% off coupon at Dairy Queen for the plaintiffs