Certain keypresses are tracked for errors in carrier network, says Carrier IQ

At the end of November, Trevor Eckhart had released a 17 minute video showing how Carrier IQ had been sneaking into users’ private data. Android and iOS phones were said to be stealthily employing this software, while Nokia and RIM assured that Carrier IQ hasn’t been used on their respective phones. According to recent news, Apple is also being grilled in Germany over using the software.

Carrier IQ defends

According to Slashgear, Carrier IQ has come up with an explanation stating that network carriers’ are to be blamed and not Carrier IQ for the mess. Reportedly, Andrew Coward, VP of Marketing, Carrier IQ said that SMSes aren’t stored or transmitted. He also claims that only certain keypresses are tracked, which will help to find errors in carrier’s network

So, Carrier IQ hints that its tracking software finds certain pre-configured error codes, which depends upon the information that its carrier customer needs. For example - all the SMses that fail or the usage of apps on a daily basis.

“The content of SMS messages are never logged. There are two things that happen when SMS messages are received. One is, obviously, we count them, the ones that succeed, the ones that fail. We do also record the telephone numbers the SMSs are from and to. So for example, if you send and SMS to me and it fails, you want to be able to work out did it not leave your phone, was it a communication problem with the tower, did it somehow not get to me in the last mile. This is a two-way conversation. You need the know both ends of the chain to understand. The content of the SMS is never stored and never transmitted”, Andrew Coward, Carrier IQ