
As if Apple's commitment to pulling the plug wasn't sufficient for some, iPhone carrier Sprint is similarly doing away with Carrier IQ across its entire mobile device line. On Monday, Sprint swallowed a bitter pill in the wake of critics blasting the wireless giant for allowing Carrier IQ software on some 26 million of its devices in the United States.
"We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," Sprint announced in an email to Mobile Burn. "We are further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint's diagnostic needs."
As MMi previously reported, 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 believed to be installed on more than 100 million devices around the world.
Until now, Sprint and AT&T - two iPhone carriers in the United States - claimed that the Carrier IQ software and its collected data have only been used as a means to "improve service performance." As of this writing, Sprint is done dealing with Carrier IQ, although it isn't yet clear if Sprint somehow remotely disabled the software on its devices or on its network.
Source: Mobile Burn
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