Carrier IQ Key-logging Software Found on iPhone for 'Diagnostic Data' Retrieval
Carrier IQ’s spying software is on the Apple iPhone.
The controversial software that is on millions of mobile phones and specifically on most modern Androids, BlackBerrys, and Nokias, was now found on the iPhone.
Carrier IQ is a pre-installed application that logs every action a user does on his or her phone. The software knows every call, text message, and keystroke a user implements.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Now, according to Mac Observer, the software is also on Apple’s iOS. On Wednesday, a developer named chpwn released a statement confirming the discovery.
“Carrier IQ, the now infamous ‘rootkit’ or ‘key logger,’ is not just for Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, and even webOS. In fact, up through and including iOS 5, Apple has included a copy of Carrier IQ on the iPhone,” said the developer.
“However, it does appears to be disabled along with diagnostics enabled on iOS 5; older versions may send back information in more cases. Because of that, if you want to disable Carrier IQ on your iOS 5 device, turning off ‘Diagnostics and Usage’ in Settings appears to be enough,” the developer continued.
Chpwn detailed how the software is enabled on the iPhone. He said that it is activated when the user agrees to diagnostic data to Apple. In Apple’s case, texts, web history, passwords, browsing history, or text messages are not sent or saved remotely.
Apple, on Thursday, released a statement similar to chpwn's.
“We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update,” said the technology giant.
“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,” the statement concluded.
