Customers concerned about Carrier IQ remaining on their Sprint/HTC devices can now rest their minds.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the Carrier IQ software is what’s known as a rootkit that is installed at a carrier’s request on mobile phones. Carrier IQ raises user privacy concerns because it runs in the background and monitors and logs user activity. Carrier IQ is known to be installed on well over 100 million devices around the world.
As of today, however, Sprint Nextel says Carrier IQ software is effectively erased from devices across its network. The move was achieved in part by Sprint’s partnership with HTC, which yielded a firmware update targeting Carrier IQ.
“HTC can confirm that we’re working with Sprint to provide maintenance releases that will remove Carrier IQ and provide security enhancements and bug fixes beginning in January,” HTC admits, according to The Verge.
Until now, carriers like Sprint and AT&T previously claimed that the Carrier IQ software and its collected data have only been used as a means to “improve service performance.”
Do you feel more confident about your mobile usage now that Carrier IQ has been dumped by Sprint?
