Android smartphone software tracks every user action and keystroke, analysis finds

(NaturalNews) Smartphone devices are convenient, handy tools for staying in touch with friends and family, getting directions on the go, and accessing a variety of helpful user applications from virtually anywhere. But a recent analysis of smartphones loaded with Google's Android software platform reveals that the technology can also track every movement, action, and keystroke of users, which represents a serious breach of privacy.

The UK's Telegraph reports that preloaded Android software known as "Carrier IQ" secretly monitors and records the websites Android users access from their mobile phones, as well as the text messages they send and receive and even the individual keystrokes they make. The technology also logs a history of where users are located geographically while performing these tasks.

Carrier IQ claims that its software only tracks this information for the benefit of its users and their smartphone experience, and does not sell the information to third parties. But Trevor Eckhart, a developer of Android "app" software and a security researcher, conducted a test on his own personal Android phone and found that the software keeps an active record of every keystroke made, every text message sent, and where users conduct such activity -- and it sends all this information directly to Carrier IQ.

Eckhart recently posted a video to YouTube that explains how the data collection process works, and how it is quietly transmitted back to Carrier IQ without user knowledge. You can view that video here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TrevorE...

http://www.naturalnews.com/034352_Android_surveillance_tracking.html

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Permalink Reply by guest_blog on December 13, 2011 at 3:57pm

FBI using Carrier IQ info for "law enforcement purposes," refuses to release records

By Jon Brodkin | Published about 4 hours ago

An enterprising advocate for openness in government has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI for all information the agency uses related to Carrier IQ, the company under fire for monitoring user activity on smartphones—and his request was flatly denied. The FBI claims data gathered by Carrier IQ software is exempt from disclosure laws because it is located in an investigative file that was "compiled for law enforcement purposes" and "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/fbi-using-carrier-i...

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Permalink Reply by joe banana on October 17, 2012 at 9:52pm

"Could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings"? Holy moly, that's the best they can come up with? I don't care what they "think", the constitution still over-rides unconstitutional and illegal wiretapping. It don't matter what executive order they want to refer to, they're all 'notwithstanding" anyhow. Just one more reason I refuse to own a cell phone.

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Permalink Reply by M. Wilson on October 25, 2012 at 10:15am

I found this when I Googled "Carrier IQ"...It is a Logging test App. Don't know anything about it. We gave up our "trick" phones over a year ago when we started getting off the grid and out of the Rat Race.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559