Smartphones may not be very secure in terms of information proection. Carrier IQ software installed on millions of phones allegedly tracks just about everything people do on their smartphones, a Connecticut software developer said.
An embedded analytics company, Carrier IQ, said in a statement last week that the software was designed to help mobile network providers "diagnose critical issues that lead to problems such as dropped calls and battery drain," UPI.com reported.
Initially, the Mountain View, Calif., company had threatened to pursue legal action against 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart following his allegation that the software tracks nearly all information, but the company later apologized to Eckhart and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an anti-censorship group that had come to Eckhart's support, Wired.com reported Wednesday.
The software was installed for quality control on Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ said. It does not record keystrokes, does not inspect contents of communications and does not sell the information to third parties, the company said.
However, Eckhart, proceeded to post a video on YouTube Monday that appears to show the software tracking keystrokes of text messages and encrypted Web searches, Wired.com said.
The data is then sent to Carrier IQ's servers, according to Wired.com.
