By David Rosen, AlterNet
Posted on December 28, 2011, Printed on December 29, 2011
A series of ongoing battles delineate the boundary of what, in the digital age, is personal, private life and information.
December 28, 2011 | In a recent hearing
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Al Franken reminded his
fellow Americans, “People have a fundamental right to control their
private information.” At the hearing, Franken raised an alarm about
Carrier IQ’s software, CIQ.
Few
people have ever heard about CIQ. Running under the app functions, CIQ
doesn't require the user’s consent (or knowledge) to operate. On Android
phones, it can track a user’s keystrokes, record telephone calls, store
text messages, track location and more. Most troubling, it is difficult
to impossible to disable.
Carrier
IQ, located in Mountain View, CA, was founded in 2005 and is backed by a
group of venture capitalists. Its software is installed on about 150
million wireless devices offered through AT&T, HTC, Nokia, RIM
(BlackBerry), Samsung, Sprint and Verizon Wireless. It runs on a
variety of operating systems, including the Apple OS and Google’s
Android (but not on Microsoft Windows).
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