Carrier IQ was a privately owned
mobile software
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...
company founded in 2005 in
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...
. It provided diagnostic analysis of
smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s to the wireless industry via the installation of software on the user's phone, typically in a manner that cannot be removed without
rooting the phone. The company says that its software is deployed in over 150 million devices worldwide.
History
The company was founded by Konstantin Othmer and is a
spin-off from his Core Mobility company. Through its MSIP its software "aggregates, analyzes, and delivers data to wireless carriers and device manufacturers. This information proves a valuable resource for these businesses to understand the quality of service their customers experience."
On January 27, 2009, CEO Mark Quinlivan announced Carrier IQ had received $20 million Series C financing from
Intel Capital
Intel Capital Corporation started off as the investment arm of Intel Corporation in 1991 and in January 2025, it spun off as a standalone investment fund. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies off ...
, and Presidio Ventures, a
Sumitomo Corporation
is one of the largest worldwide '' sōgō shōsha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group.
It is listed on three Japanese stock exchange ...
Company.
On February 9, 2009, Carrier IQ announced a partnership with
Huawei Technologies to develop a "new range of data cards that will provide improved feedback on the mobile broadband user experience."
On February 17, 2009, NEC and Carrier IQ announced a global partnership.
On June 17, 2009, Carrier IQ was selected by
TiE as a TiE50 award winner as "One of the Hottest Global Emerging Companies."
On June 16, 2010, Bridgescale Partners announced $12 million in Series D financing for the company.
On October 18, 2010, VisionMobile announced Carrier IQ had joined the "100 Million Club" with its software installed on 100 million phones.
On March 22, 2011, Carrier IQ announced Mobile Intelligence for 4G technologies, including LTE and HSPA+.
On August 31, 2011, Operating Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures Larry Lenhart was named CEO. The announcement noted that in the second quarter of 2011 Carrier IQ passed the
petabyte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
milestone in processed analytics data.
On October 19, 2011, Carrier IQ and third party vendor
Nielsen Company
Nielsen Holdings plc (or Nielsen) is an American media audience measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide.
For most of its history, the company was known for its two subsidiarie ...
announced a partnership on analyzing data.
On October 27, 2011,
IDC named Carrier IQ "Innovative Business Analytics Company Under $100M"
On November 12, 2011, Trevor Eckhart published a report indicating that Carrier IQ software was capable of recording various metrics, including user keystrokes.
At
Mobile World Congress
MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry.
The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...
2012, Carrier IQ announced an extension to its IQ Care product with a "customer-facing dashboard", relaying information that they'd usually send to wireless companies—such as battery life, network coverage, app's effect on phone performance, and dropped calls coverage—directly to consumers in an effort to reduce
technical support
Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...
calls.
On December 30, 2015, it was reported that
AT&T Inc. had acquired Carrier IQ's software assets and some of its staff, effectively shutting down the company. AT&T had been a customer of Carrier IQ's for several years, using the software to troubleshoot wireless quality on their customers' mobile phones.
Board of directors
Its board of directors in November 2011 were:
* Larry Lenhart, president and CEO (previously with Mohr Davidow)
*
Bruce Leak, co-founder of
WebTV Networks
* Jon Feiber,
Mohr Davidow Ventures
* Martin Gibson,
Accel Partners
Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is a global venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ope ...
* Bruce Sachs,
Charles River Ventures
* Dominic Endicott, Nauta Capital
Products
IQ Agent is software, typically pre-installed on mobile devices by handset manufacturers or network operators, designed to gather, store and forward diagnostic measurements on their behalf. Data available can include
metrics
Metric or metrical may refer to:
Measuring
* Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement
* An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement
Mathematics
...
on the device itself (e.g., firmware,
battery levels, application performance, web performance) and performance data on voice and data connectivity between the device and radio towers. The mobile device manufacturers or network operators determine which of these metrics are actually collected, according to a set of criteria known as a "profile." The IQ Agent software runs in the background, and the user is not usually aware of its presence unless the implementation includes an on-off switch.
IQ Agent periodically uploads data to a Carrier IQ Mobile Service Intelligence Platform (MSIP) system, which then feeds into the network operator's network performance monitoring and diagnostic tools. Whenever a mobile device uploads data, the IQ Agent can also download a new profile to change the selection of metrics gathered.
IQ Agent was first shipped in 2006 on embedded feature phones and has since been implemented on numerous devices and operating systems, including smartphones (
Android, RIM,
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
), USB modems and
tablets.
MSIP (Mobile Service Intelligence Platform) refers to the backend Carrier IQ software that receives mobile device diagnostic data directly from mobile devices containing the IQ Agent software. The platform aggregates data from many devices and produces
KPIs (key performance indicators) that network operators and mobile device manufacturers can use to assess the quality of services they provide and to troubleshoot mobile device and network problems.
Analytics Domains are MSIP components that enable the system to calculate specific KPIs. Carrier IQ's first analytics domains were on
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...
signaling, later implementing
UMTS
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...
(third-generation mobile cellular technology for GSM networks), LTE (a standard marketed as 4G LTE) and device-specific domains for device stability, battery and application performance.
IQ Insight is a suite of applications that gathers, analyzes and presents KPIs generated by MSIP through a web-based
GUI (graphical user interface). The application delivers data through a geospatial or tabular view of issues (such as dropped calls or no-service conditions) and allows cross-domain analysis of KPIs.
IQ Care is a dashboard tool for network operator and mobile device customer care agents. When a mobile device user calls for support or troubleshooting, IQ Care provides the customer care agent with a dashboard showing the consumer's device configurations (e.g., mobile device serial number, firmware version), usage history (e.g., number of applications installed, battery life) and other user experience metrics (e.g., device and application crash data, radio technology analytics).
Rootkit discovery and media attention
On November 12, 2011, researcher Trevor Eckhart stated in a post on androidsecuritytest.com that Carrier IQ was logging information such as location without notifying users or allowing them to opt out, and that the information tracked included detailed keystroke logs, potentially violating US federal law.
On November 16, 2011, Carrier IQ sent Eckhart a
cease and desist letter claiming that he was in copyright infringement by posting Carrier IQ training documents on his website and also making "false allegations." Eckhart sought and received the backing of user rights advocacy group
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
(EFF).
On November 23, 2011, Carrier IQ backed down and apologized. In the statement of apology, Carrier IQ denied allegations of
keystroke logging and other forms of tracking, and offered to work with the EFF.
On November 28, 2011, Eckhart published a
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
video that demonstrates Carrier IQ software in the act of logging, as plain text, a variety of keystrokes. Included in the demonstration were clear-text captures of passwords to otherwise secure websites, and activities performed when the cellular network was disabled. The video of the demonstration showed Carrier IQ's software processing keystrokes, browser data, and text messages' contents, but there was no indication that the information processed was recorded or transmitted. Carrier IQ responded with the statement, "The metrics and tools we derive are not designed to deliver such information, nor do we have any intention of developing such tools." A datasheet for a product called Experience Manager on Carrier IQ's public website clearly states carriers can "Capture a vast array of experience data including screen transitions, button presses, service interactions and anomalies".
Legal actions against Carrier IQ
Many have already been seeking suit against Carrier IQ, including:
* Commonwealth of
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
(criminal and civil)
*
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
(criminal)
*
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
(civil)
*
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 5 ...
(civil)
*
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
(civil)
* JMLECS Umbrella Companies (criminal and civil)
* Hagens Berman, California, class action (unknown)
Detection and removal
Numerous apps have been released that can detect the Carrier IQ. Detecting Carrier IQ normally doesn't require the device to be rooted.
The removal process is more advanced and requires the user to root the device, or unlock the device's boot loader (applies only on Nexus devices) in order to remove it. Rooting the device may void its warranty, since system files are modified.
Updates
On December 12, 2011, Carrier IQ released a document to explain their software and its uses. The document is titled "Understanding Carrier IQ Technology". There are credits given to Dan Rosenberg and Trevor Eckhart. The nineteen-page document provides a technical breakdown of how the software on a mobile phone works with "profiles" provided by the carrier to give the carriers performance data of their networks and devices running on them. The document appears as if it will be updated on a regular basis as more questions are answered over time.
On December 1, 2011, Carrier IQ issued a "clarification" to its November 23 statements: "While a few individuals have identified that there is a great deal of information available to the Carrier IQ software inside the handset, our software does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen ... As a condition of its contracts with operators, Carrier IQ operates exclusively within that framework and under the laws of the applicable jurisdiction. The data we gather is transmitted over an encrypted channel and secured within our customers' networks or in our audited and customer-approved facilities ... Carrier IQ acts as an agent for the operators. Each implementation is different and the diagnostic information actually gathered is determined by our customers – the mobile operators. Carrier IQ does not gather any other data from devices.
Carrier IQ is the consumer advocate to the mobile operator, explaining what works and what does not work. Three of the main complaints we hear from mobile device users are (1) dropped calls, (2) poor customer service, and (3) having to constantly recharge the device. Our software allows operators to figure out why problems are occurring, why calls are dropped, and how to extend the life of the battery. When a user calls to complain about a problem, our software helps operators' customer service to more quickly identify the specific issue with the phone."
There has been debate whether Carrier IQ software actually sends the collected data in real time or if it is stored on the phone and only gets read out later. The company clearly states on its web page that its software is able to provide real-time data: "Carrier IQ's Mobile Service Intelligence solution eliminates guesswork by automatically providing accurate, ''real-time'' data direct from the source – your customers' handsets.".
In February 2012, TelecomTV, in association with Carrier IQ, filmed
panel discussion/debate titled, 'The Data Dilemma' and addressing the question: Do operators collect user data for the benefit of their customer or for their own commercial and financial betterment? Participants in the videotaped panel discussion were Mike Short, Vice President, Telefónica Europe; Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive Analysis; Charlotte Patric, Principal Analyst, Gartner; and Martyn Warwick, Moderator, TelecomTV.
On May 8, 2012, Carrier IQ appointed a Chief Privacy Officer: Magnolia Mobley, formerly Verizon's Lead Privacy Counsel. This news spurred a new round of articles and discussions about privacy in mobile communications.
In February 2015, HTC One users began reporting that the Carrier IQ agent software was overriding GPS device settings in order to obtain location information even when the GPS was turned off.
Analytics and Carrier IQ
Generally speaking, analytics companies collect, synthesize, and present aggregated user information to their customers to help them reduce maintenance costs, increase revenue, and improve the
performance of a particular product. Mobile analytics provide to their customers telemetry. The telemetry is important because it contains solutions related to mobile web and telephone services. For instance, if a particular application on a mobile device crashes, the logs can be sent showing specific details of the issue. It is also possible that telemetry related to mobile handset user webpage views and click
behavior is also included
Problems with Carrier IQ's clarification
While the contents of SMS messages are kept private, as the clarification states, the simple reporting of the success or failure of an SMS transmission provides valuable information about customer habits that would not normally be available outside of the cellular network itself.
Because the information is transmitted over the web on a regular basis, an internet service provider will be able see entries in the named.log file that resides on its
name server
A name server is a computer application that implements a network service for providing responses to queries against a directory service. It translates an often humanly meaningful, text-based identifier to a system-internal, often numeric identi ...
at times when any user with an affected phone is connected to the internet by WiFi. This method of connecting is extremely common, as many users seek to keep their cellular data charges as low as possible by also utilizing their home or corporate wireless networks.
A likely
privacy violation is targeted marketing by the home or company's internet service provider. Examples of possible targeted
marketing
Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce.
Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
include offering competing phone plans, android apps that facilitate additional sales, such as
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
guides, and even hardware sales, like faster or integrated WiFi routers.
In short, because of the way Carrier IQ works, even if the company acts with the best of intentions, the software betrays users by leaking information outside of the control of either Carrier IQ or the affected user's phone company.
Distribution
On December 1, 2011,
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
Sprint, and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
confirmed it was on their phones. Sprint said, "We collect enough information to understand the customer experience with devices on our network and how to address any connection problems, but we do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool ... The information collected is not sold and we don't provide a direct feed of this data to anyone outside of Sprint."
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
was the only one of the four biggest U.S. firms to say it was not installed on their phones.
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
,
HTC, and
Samsung
Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...
said the software was installed on their phones. Apple said it had quit supporting the application in
iOS 5. It said, "With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information ... We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so." It said it would scrub the software from phones in some future release. HTC (whose Android phone was the subject of Eckhart's video) said, it was required on its devices by a "number of U.S. carriers." It added "It is important to note that HTC is not a customer or partner of Carrier IQ and does not receive data from the application, the company, or carriers that partner with Carrier IQ."
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
and Research in Motion (now
BlackBerry Ltd) have said Carrier IQ categorically was not authorized for their phones.
According to the company's website the software is also installed on
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...
mobile devices, and the company has a partnership with
Vodafone Portugal.
Although the phone manufacturers and carriers by and large say the software is strictly used to monitor its phone systems and not to be used by third parties, a press release on October 19, 2011 touted a partnership with
Nielsen Company
Nielsen Holdings plc (or Nielsen) is an American media audience measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide.
For most of its history, the company was known for its two subsidiarie ...
. The press release said, "Together, they will deliver critical insights into the consumer experience of mobile phone and tablet users worldwide, which adhere to Nielsen's measurement science and privacy standards. This alliance will leverage Carrier IQ's technology platform to gather actionable intelligence on the performance of mobile devices and networks."
Government response
On December 1, 2011, Senator
Al Franken
Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, and actor who served from 2009 to 2018 as a United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he worked as an ...
, chairman of the
United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law sent a letter to Lenhart asking for answers to 11 questions and asking whether the company was in violation of the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend restrictions on government wire taps of telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer ( ''et seq.''), added n ...
, including the federal
wiretap
Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...
statute (18 U.S.C. § 2511 et seq.), the
pen register statute (18 USC § 3121 et seq.), and the
Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq.) and the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030).
A request to the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
under the
Freedom of Information Act for "any manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ" was denied, citing pending law enforcement proceeding. This has led to speculation that the FBI is using data obtained through Carrier IQ for investigations.
Security responses
Fortinet has deemed Carrier IQ as a security risk/rootkit, using definition Riskware/CarrierIQ!Android.
Paper shared with Senate clarifyin
solution in 2011
See also
*
Mobile web analytics
*
Mobile phone tracking
*
Mobile QoS
*
Mobile security
Mobile security, or mobile device security, is the protection of smartphones, tablets, and laptops from threats associated with wireless computing. It has become increasingly important in mobile computing. The Information security, security of pe ...
*
Mobile device
A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. ...
References
External links
Security researcher responds to CarrierIQ with video proof of keylogging- Geek.com
{{Mobile phones
Android (operating system) software
Companies based in Sunnyvale, California
Telecommunications companies established in 2005
Mobile telecommunications
Spyware
Smartphones
Mobile security