It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar - Jerome K. Jerome
|
|
|
Carrier IQ is just the tip of the data mining iceberg
THE RECENT FURORE over Carrier IQ's tracker-ware on smartphones has once again highlighted the naiveté of users when it comes to privacy and technology.
Carrier IQ has acknowledged its software can track activities on mobile phones but the firm has repeatedly denied accusations that its software can log keystrokes. Those accusations were repeated by Google chairman Eric Schmidt last week in what could be the most damning statement against the mobile data acquisition company to date.
However, what Schmidt and mobile operators didn't say was that they want the sort of information Carrier IQ's software provides.
Since the Carrier IQ tracker-ware story broke, phone manufacturers such as Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion have distanced themselves from the software. That's all well and good but as Carrier IQ told The INQUIRER, its customers are not the phone manufacturers but the mobile operators - and therein lies the real problem for consumers.
Carrier IQ's software might be shunned by phone manufacturers but in order to win lucrative contracts with mobile operators to subsidise their device, they hand over significant control over what the device looks like and what software is loaded. Such is the power of mobile operators - not only can devices have significant cosmetic changes but, beneath the visible user interface and running on top of the operating system, a whole host of 'diagnostic software' can be loaded, unbeknownst to the user.
Carrier IQ has been accused of snooping on users without their knowledge, but the truth is, users have been leaking private information through their smartphones for years. While no one should condone what Carrier IQ's software does or those who load it onto devices, it is worth looking at the amount of private information users are freely willing to give away before pounding a stake into Carrier IQ.
To understand why companies like Carrier IQ are in business one has to realise that a smartphone is much more than a small touchscreen computer that can make telephone calls. A modern smartphone, whether it be loaded with Android, IOS, Blackberry OS or WebOS, is at present the most efficient way to gather information that promotes the sale of advertising.
Google's success was built partly on the efficiency of its search engine back in the early 2000s. Its long term success resulted from the company realising that selling highly targeted advertising was what its customers - the advertising agencies - wanted, and in order to target advertising the firm needs as much data as possible about its users.
To understand the potential riches provided by data collected from smartphones, one has to see just how much work Google is willing to give away for free. The firm has used some of the most highly paid software developers to create and maintain operating systems and an extensive infrastructure that it gives away for free.
Share this:
Share
Inviting the P-O-L-I-C-E inside your house to monitor and profile all your personal moments, physiologically AND psychologically, IT IS WRONG.
One thing is for sure, YOU ARE NOT READING THE ARTICALS OF THIS SITE. If you did, you would of known that police around the world is already using facebook, SMS, tweet and general all the kind of communication ways to PROSECUTE and jail people, when the people thought that this communication was personal.
Which do you thing is going to be their next source of evidence to march into our home and arrest us.
IF you still can’t see any problems, you MUST go and check your vision.
We give information away. It costs us nothing. We get free stuff in return. The tone of this article is that this is BAD, but it omits to mention why. Would people rather pay to use Google than accept targetted advertising? I wouldn't myself. OK, I agree people should be aware of what information they give away - if they care, which I suspect many don't, but beyond that I don't see a big problem.
If Carrier IQ’s software is not the one which spy on you there will be another more invisible more “uncrackable”. Monitoring us is matching the rest of our governments actions like: CCTVs, face recognition software and so many other way that already use to spy on us.
So voluntarily we will make our little spy devices, wallets as well. GREATE.
I really do not see a way out of that in the future. :(
I think as you pointed out in the article the wireless manufacturers are not the customer. Neither is the end user. It is the carriers. The data collected is not your text message contents or emails or phone conversations. Lets move beyond the conspiracy theories please. The data collected is metrics pure and simple. From if you had a dropped call to errors due to network or phone malfunctions.
Going after carrier iq is like fighting firewall manufactures because they can see everything you do as well. According to the carriers there is verbiage in your contract for diagnostics data to be collected. Yes there isn't an opt out option, and end users were not given a presentation on the software loaded on their phone, but ignorance is not an excuse and if you signed it then under the law at least they can do what they see fit. I am not saying public opinion is otherwise, but I think this is a classic case of end users not reading what they are signing. Every time you get a pop up on your computer do you read the whole EULA, ITunes is a classic example.
I would suggest reading the article on the companies main website, it is nineteen pages and covers what information is used. Exactly what is used from your phone depends on the carrier as it is there information. But you can see the metrics that can be collected for making the end user experience better.
""While no one should condone what Carrier IQ's software does or those who load it onto devices, it is worth looking at the amount of private information users are freely willing to give away before pounding a stake into Carrier IQ.""
Disagree. Willingly giving someone your own personal information is clearly not the same thing as someone gaining network access to your cell phone or computer device without authorisation (thats a big legal no no) and copying your data without permission (another big legal no no).
If your next question is do I think that Carrier IQ should be above the law, I will just premptively answer no.