Carrier IQ Spotted in Apple iOS Devices, Nokia Denies IQ Tracking

Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 8:20 am , filed under Software by Thomas

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Nokia has denied reports that its cellphones and smartphones contain code from Carrier IQ, the mobile analytics company has been charged of logging keypresses, text entry and other use across many numbers of handsets.

One of the spokesperson of Nokia has stated that CarrierIQ does not ship products for any Nokia devices, claiming that the reports rumored otherwise as inaccurate. However, proof of at least some potential Carrier IQ tracking has been identified in Apple iOS devices, whereas Google’s Nexus range is alleged to be code-free.

According to the reliable source familiar with the matter claims that the 3 official Google phones (Nexus One, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus) are free of Carrier IQ software. In addition, the original XOOM tablet is as well tipped to be clean of Carrier IQ code, in spite of it not being an official Nexus device.

On the other hand, iOS modder chpwn has revealed evidence of Carrier IQ software in iOS 3, iOS 4 and iOS 5, although the data seems to be less comprehensive than on some Android devices. He revealed that the iPhone just sends information collected if the Diagnostics and Usage setting is enabled, and only some aspects of telephony and location are collected.

Furthermore he says that how Carrier IQ software reports is very much tied to individual carrier settings, it’s up to them as to whether the phone reports or not, in addition to whether it can use 3G, WiFi or both to do so.

In chpwn investigations he states that it does not seem the daemon has any access or communication with the UI layer, where text entry is done and as such is reasonably sure it has no access to web history, passwords, typed text, text messages, browsing history, and as such is not sending any of this data remotely.

By Thomas

Tags: Apple iOS devices, Carrier IQ code, Carrier IQ software, Carrier IQ software in Nokia, Carrier IQ tracking, Diagnostics and Usage, google nexus, google phones, iOS modder chpwn, nokia, Nokia Denies Carrier IQ