More and more consultants, service providers and just general workers live on their mobile devices. Our phones are the one place where we input our lives – which sports website we prefer, who we are calling, when we are shopping, where we are at or driving to, when we travel, who we are meeting with. Everything we do is on that mobile device.
That’s what makes this Carrier IQ issue so important. In case you aren’t aware, Carrier IQ is an app that can log every key stroke or input you make into your mobile device and then send that information back to the carrier for behavior analysis – the stated purpose is so that carriers can target improvements to their network and possibly improve ad delivery. But the level of information collected is extremely invasive.
If you care about the issue and have an Android device, you can now easily find out if you have Carrier IQ installed on your phone. If it’s not installed then you are fine. If it is, you are on a carrier and using a phone where privacy is gone. Some people may not care, but for those of us that believe in a right to privacy this is a significant issue.