Dutch Android smartphones do not contain “provider-spyware”

In the Netherlands, purchased Android smartphones seem spywaretool Carrier IQ not to have. This is evident from an inventory of Tweakers.net. The spyware on an American smartphone logs keystrokes and reads text messages and urls.

The tool, which providers say to use things like dropped calls and limited range to keep an eye on, according to the company Carrier IQ on 141 million devices. Android developer TrevE discovered the tool in a few smartphones in the Us carrier Sprint sells. The tool logs all kinds of information and may, at the request of the provider is sent via a secure internet connection. Under more keystrokes in the dialer and urls of sites visited will be logged, even if it is a ssl connection. That says TrevE in extensive documentation about the app on a Sprint Evo 4G.

The tool appears to be not present on the Dutch machines. TrevE called HTC explicitly as a manufacturer that the tool used, but also Samsung would install it. The HTC Sensation XE, HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S II and Google Nexus S become apparent, however, from a private inventory of Tweakers.net not about the tool. Moreover, after a call, not a single reader reported that the spyware on his device. There were at the time of writing approximately twenty responses within.

Nokia, which according to TrevE, the spyware would install on devices, it denies, by the mouth of Benelux spokesman Jurgen Thysmans Carrier IQ to use. The American carrier Verizon Wireless, which more than a hundred million customers, denies Carrier IQ on devices to install, although TrevE various domain names has been discovered indicating that. Provider Sprint has admitted that the app installs and calls the technique is essential for maintaining the performance of the network.

Carrier IQ can according to TrevE to be found in the tab All the Apps in the Settings menu to search IQRD. In the case of HTC devices should HTCIQagent be sought. Also, the developer has a tool that allows the spyware can be detected. The spywaretool gained notoriety when, in september found that HTC put him in a update had stopped. The install of the tool is tricky, because it is active throughout the operating system.