Federal investigators have launched a probe in order to examine Carrier IQ’s smartphone software, which tracks a range of activity and sends certain data to wireless carriers without users’ knowledge. Carrier IQ executives met with officials from both the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commuission on Tuesday, The Washington Post reports. “We are complying with all investigations at this time as we have nothing to hide,” said Carrier IQ representative Mira Woods. “We...

Carrier IQ, the vendor and carrier-installed rootkit software pulled into the spotlight last month by security researcher Trevor Eckhart, has caused quite a stir. Carriers including AT&T and Sprint use the software as a means of collecting data logs that might help them identify and address connectivity problems and other issues, but the software’s covert nature and wide range of snooping capabilities make it a concern. The good news is that detecting the software on your Android phone couldn’...

Apple, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Carrier IQ have been sued in a federal court by what the lawyers involved have deemed a “cell phone tracking software scandal.” Law firms Sianni & Straite LLP, Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy LLP, and Keefe Bartels L.L.C. have jointly filed a class action complaint in a Delaware Federal Court related to the “unprecedented breach of the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users.” The complaint suggests...

Last week, research published by security expert Trevor Eckhart pulled back the veil on Carrier IQ, a suite of what can seemingly be described as spyware pre-installed on a wide range of devices by both carriers and vendors. Eckhart cited a BGR story from September as an early reference to the software, which at that time was thought to be a somewhat benign set of quality-control measures. “Carrier IQ is used to understand what problems customers are having with our network or devices so we can take ac...

Brooklyn-based artist Kyle McDonald finds himself in hot water after secretly photographing Apple Store customers while they shopping for computers. “I thought maybe we could see ourselves doing this we would think more about our computers and how we’re using them,” McDonald told Mashable. Without the staff’s knowledge, the 25-year-old installed software on computers at two Apple Store locations in New York that used their integrated webcams to capture photos every 60 seconds. The software then a...

Touted as an espionage tool but more closely resembling spyware is a new application, Phone Creeper, written by xda-developer member chetstriker. Once installed on a Windows Mobile 5, 6.1 or 6.5 handset with .NET CF 3.5, the software tool can be used to:secretly and remotely read incoming / outgoing sms secretly and remotely delete incoming / outgoing sms secretly and remotely view call history bounce sms messages off remote phone to someone else create a pop-up message on phone send a secret fart sound secre...