The privacy watch dog of a German state wants Apple’s clarification on the use of Carrier IQ, software that would be used for the phone user to spy. Samsung and HTC are for that reason, the U.S. sued.
The privacy watch dog of the German state of Bavaria wants to Apple’s clarification about its use of Carrier IQ. That writes Bloomberg. The last day was a riot about Carrier IQ, the software that is on Android and iOS devices, and it is found that the behavior of smartphone users in the map would bring. The software, by some as spyware labeled, would by providers are used to their subscribers to follow.
The German state now wants to know exactly how it is, and want to know what are the consequences of the use of the software for the privacy. Apple has also indicated that it is the software since iOS 5 is not supported anymore and in a software-update will completely remove. The Carrier IQ software is not on Dutch Android smartphones found, but this may be running on the 7″ Galaxy Tab from Samsung. On Dutch iOS devices is the software, but active in the editor-copy of the iPhone 4 turned out the program does not actively collect data.
In the United States, meanwhile, a class action lawsuit being prepared against the company behind Carrier IQ, and the smartphonemakers HTC and Samsung. That writes paidContent. In a class action lawsuit allows multiple plaintiffs in a single lawsuit. According to the plaintiffs, the companies have law breaking that the interception of communication doesn’t allow and therefore they want hundreds of millions in damages.
Meanwhile, it is still not entirely clear what the software exactly. According to Carrier IQ is the content of text messages, photos, e-mails, audio and video are not stored and forwarded, but rather showed a hacker that software keystrokes captures and the content of text messages logs. The existence of the software came already in september at the light, when it turned out that this in the firmware of some HTC devices was added.