AT and T and Sprint sued over IQ tracking software

Begin quote from:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-03/at-t-sprint-sued-by-customers-over-carrier-iq-tracking-software.html

More From Businessweek

• Apple Questioned in Germany as Carrier IQ Use Probed in Europe
• Obama Invokes Cold-War Law to Unmask Chinese Telecom Spyware
• Facebook, EU Privacy, HTC, Zynga: Intellectual Property
• AT&T, Sprint Defend Use of Carrier IQ User Tracking Software
• AT&T Said to Plan Proposing Bigger Asset Sales to Save Takeover

By Karen Gullo

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Apple Inc. and T-Mobile USA were sued by mobile phone customers who claim that Carrier IQ Inc. tracking software installed on their phones violates U.S. wiretapping and computer fraud laws.

The lawsuit cites a YouTube report by a technology blogger that purported to show that Carrier IQ software collects information on phone users’ locations, applications and Web browsing and even the keys they press. Four consumers filed a complaint yesterday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking to block the carriers and phone makers from using the software.

Carrier IQ software logs user activity and runs in the background of mobile devices. After the YouTube report, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee contacted the company seeking information and alleging that the software may violate federal privacy laws, according to a copy of the complaint supplied by David Straite, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The filing of the lawsuit couldn’t be confirmed yesterday through electronic court records.

AT&T and Sprint, the second- and third-largest U.S. wireless providers, said in e-mailed statements on Dec. 1 that the software data is used to improve service performance. Apple stopped supporting Carrier IQ in most products and will remove it completely in a future software update, Natalie Harrison, an Apple spokeswoman, said in a Dec. 1 e-mail.

Punitive Damages

The customers who sued seek compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of all others whose devices contain the so- called rootkit software from Mountain View, California-based Carrier IQ, which is also named as a defendant in the suit. The software is currently installed on 150 million phones worldwide, according to the complaint.

Violations of the federal wiretap laws, which prohibit willful interception of wire or electronic communication, can result in damages of $100 a day per violation, according to the complaint.

Carol Roos, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based AT&T, declined to comment on the lawsuit.end quote.

I agree that the IQ software should not be resident in the phones because if every keystroke is saved it means that somewhere sometime even 1, 5, 10, or 25 or even 100 years from now someone could sell these keystrokes to the highest bidder. And it doesn't matter why the company is saving records of everyone's keystrokes it is illegal to do so in the first place. It is bad enough that programs like Carnivore exist that constantly listen for key words in every phone conversation possibly on earth, but now we have to accept our texts to our children, friends, neighbors and business associates are for sale too? It sounds like Great Britain and the Phone tapping scandal all over again.