Apple Stopped Supporting Carrier IQ in iOS 5, Complete Removal Coming in Future

[MacRumors]

In the wake of significant publicity about Carrier IQ, the mobile phone logging software that is able to transmit data back to carriers, Apple has now issued a statement to AllThingsD noting that the company stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 on most of its products and that it will completely remove traces of the software in a future software update.

We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.

Early evidence had suggested that Carrier IQ has been able to capture significantly more information, including keystrokes and other extremely sensitive information, on Android than on iOS.

Research into Carrier IQ's functionality on iOS has indicated that any transmission of information has been limited to phone call and location information, but Apple's statement today suggests that the company has even stopped using that information via Carrier IQ, although it does collect its own anonymized and encrypted information from devices unless users have turned off the diagnostics reporting functionality.

U.S. Senator Al Franken has requested that Carrier IQ explain just what information the software is recording and transmitting and how that information is shared with carriers and potentially other parties. Earlier this year, Franken spearheaded the government inquiry into location tracking concerns related to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.

Article Link: Apple Stopped Supporting Carrier IQ in iOS 5, Complete Removal Coming in Future

 

[soco]

Good. I mean, it's not like they were using it malevolently. It's just that they need to know it makes people uncomfortable.

With all of this controversy over iTether, it's nice to see that Apple's ethics aren't "out of whack" right now.

Then again (Devil's Advocate) I suppose you could look at this like Apple trying to say what we want them to say only now that Carrier IQ has been ousted.

 

[centauratlas]

Good. To do otherwise is just outrageous.

 

[macrumorsuser10]

Apple has consistently shown that its end goal is to provide an excellent user experience. Thank you, Apple, for putting customers first and for not selling us to advertisers and other businesses.

Android users wanted a crappy OS made by an advertising company that doesn't care about privacy, and that's what they got.

 

[w00master]

Apple has consistently shown that its end goal is to provide an excellent user experience. Thank you, Apple, for putting customers first and for not selling us to advertisers and other businesses.

Android users wanted a crappy OS made by an advertising company that doesn't care about privacy, and that's what they got.

This really isn't iOS vs. Android. On the Android side, this is a CARRIER thing, so far according to most of the reports (including Gruber's site) the manufacturers (e.g. Samsung, HTC, etc.) weren't involved with this either.

w00master

 

[Shrink]

Good. I mean, it's not like they were using it malevolently. It's just that they need to know it makes people uncomfortable.

Completely agree.

Perhaps I am excessively distrustful, and, no, I have nothing to hide - but I value what little privacy remains for me in an increasingly interconnected world.

 

[w00t951]

Must be nice for Apple to be able to say this. HTC, Samsung, and other Android manufacturers can't.

 

[blueillusion]

Apple has consistently shown that its end goal is to provide an excellent user experience. Thank you, Apple, for putting customers first and for not selling us to advertisers and other businesses.

Android users wanted a crappy OS made by an advertising company that doesn't care about privacy, and that's what they got.

Wow, you really don't know what you're talking about.
The carriers put that in the phones. Google had nothing to do with it.

 

[unicorn025]

Apple has consistently shown that its end goal is to provide an excellent user experience. Thank you, Apple, for putting customers first and for not selling us to advertisers and other businesses.

Android users wanted a crappy OS made by an advertising company that doesn't care about privacy, and that's what they got.

We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5

so you saying apple told you carrieriq was on your phone before then?

 

[louis Fashion]

God bless us everyone.

 

[macrumorsuser10]

This really isn't iOS vs. Android. On the Android side, this is a CARRIER thing, so far according to most of the reports (including Gruber's site) the manufacturers (e.g. Samsung, HTC, etc.) weren't involved with this either.

w00master

Wrong. It IS an iOS vs Android thing. Apple does NOT allow carriers to put any unauthorized crapware on their iPhones. It's a walled garden that works. Google does allow carriers to put additional software, skins and, apparently, CarrierIQ.

 

[w00master]

Wrong. It IS an iOS vs Android thing. Apple does NOT allow carriers to put any unauthorized crapware on their iPhones. It's a walled garden that works. Google does allow carriers to put additional software, skins and, apparently, CarrierIQ.

It really isn't. Google and the manufacturers didn't authorize this. Again... the carriers did.

Also... it was on iOS 4 (and before). So....


w00master

 

[dwman]

Off topic, seems like Tim Cook is ushering, to some degree anyway, an age of transparency. First was the statement about Siri not finding abortion clinics and now this. The SJ led Apple would never had allowed comment this soon if at all. Nice to see.

 

[GSPice]

I want to see one person - just one - who has ever been truly hurt, punished, injured or in any other way disenfranchised by a private corporation or public entity due to any of these horrific privacy-smashing civil rights-destroying espionage applications.

I have certain feelings about most complaints I hear about "privacy infringement". It involves laughter, mockery and cynicism.

 

[dougal55]

Good news...Actually I have found it (the ability to switch off diagnostics & usage by tapping "Don't Send") in my iPhone as soon as I had iOS5 installed in October and only discovered it by accident when playing around.

Now I can imagine the huge backlash there will be from Android owners when they find how much private information has been secretly recorded... I reckon Carrier IQ have a lot to answer for, not just their denial that was published today but that there should be some kind of instructions on how to opt out of it completely when it is so well hidden inside android phones.

If Carrier IQ don't do something about it, I can see a class lawsuit lining up to challenge them...

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Nice to see apple saying this but this is just the tip of the iceberg. As long as they are crystal clear on what they collect and we the people are given the ability to completely opt out it OK. It should not be a requirement to opt in for any reason on iOS or any OS

 

[soco]

Wrong. It IS an iOS vs Android thing. Apple does NOT allow carriers to put any unauthorized crapware on their iPhones. It's a walled garden that works. Google does allow carriers to put additional software, skins and, apparently, CarrierIQ.

Completely disagree given the fact that even with the "walled garden" we live in on iOS, Carrier IQ still touched us in our no-no zone.

Not that carriers did this on iOS, but still. It's not an OS vs OS thing. This is a privacy concern and it's everyone's burden.

 

[nwcs]

Seems Apple is the first to come out openly and even acknowledge CarrierIQ. That's kudos to them in my book instead of the sheepish denials other companies have offered. Is that because the other companies are doing something less than honest or because the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing?

It will be interesting to see what happens if this hits mainstream news services. To me this is more important than antennagate or some of the other things that have gained notoriety lately.

 

[blueillusion]

Wrong. It IS an iOS vs Android thing. Apple does NOT allow carriers to put any unauthorized crapware on their iPhones. It's a walled garden that works. Google does allow carriers to put additional software, skins and, apparently, CarrierIQ.

Yes, Apples doesn't allow carriers to put unauthorized software on their phones.
But apple DID put carrierIQ on their OWN phones.

Even though it didn't log any personal data, the capability is still there.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I want to see one person - just one - who has ever been truly hurt, punished, injured or in any other way disenfranchised by a private corporation or public entity due to any of these horrific privacy-smashing civil rights-destroying espionage applications.

I have certain feelings about most complaints I hear about "privacy infringement". It involves laughter, mockery and cynicism.

It is a slippery slope. It is a line in the sand that just should not be crossed.

 

[Jerome Morrow]

We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5

so you saying apple told you carrieriq was on your phone before then?

Yes it was, but it wasn't used for anything like in Android case. Do you understand? Please take any iOS <5 device and prove they are collecting your personal data and keystokes.

 

[alent1234]

I want to see one person - just one - who has ever been truly hurt, punished, injured or in any other way disenfranchised by a private corporation or public entity due to any of these horrific privacy-smashing civil rights-destroying espionage applications.

I have certain feelings about most complaints I hear about "privacy infringement". It involves laughter, mockery and cynicism.

if they aren't bad, why are they used?

 

[macrumorsuser10]

It really isn't. Google and the manufacturers didn't authorize this. Again... the carriers did.

Also... it was on iOS 4 (and before). So....


w00master

Apparently a junior high school level of reading comprehension is not your forte.

Apple does not allow carriers to put on crapware --> therefore, there is no carrier crapware.

Google allows carriers to put on crapware --> therefore, carriers will take advantage of this and put crapware on Android phones

 

[chrono1081]

Apple has consistently shown that its end goal is to provide an excellent user experience. Thank you, Apple, for putting customers first and for not selling us to advertisers and other businesses.

Android users wanted a crappy OS made by an advertising company that doesn't care about privacy, and that's what they got.

This actually has a lot of truth to it.

Everyone who looked at their iPhones before iOS 5 new it collected data unless you turned it off. It is there plain as day. If you missed it, then thats on you since its right in the settings. Not to mention you have the option to turn it off, and it only collects unimportant things, not keystrokes and searches and such that the Android handsets were.

Google is a data mining company. Even though its the OEM's who put this software on there (they control the software to anyone who says the carriers do it), Google will take the heat for letting Android be modified in this fashion.

Another thing, Nokia claims this isn't on their phones, hence more evidence that its the OEM's not the carriers that require this.

 

[w00master]

Apparently a junior high school level of reading comprehension is not your forte.

Apple does not allow carriers to put on crapware --> therefore, there is no carrier crapware.

Google allows carriers to put on crapware --> therefore, carriers will take advantage of this and put crapware on Android phones

Wow... apparently some people are touchy today.


So... is it better then that Apple authorized it on iOS 4 and before?

Google didn't. HTC didn't. Samsung didn't. It was done by the carrier in those cases...

So, what's worse here?

w00master