Carrier IQ Press Release (PDF) ⇥

It turns out that this stuff about Carrier IQ has been known for a couple of weeks now. This is their press release from November 16.

While we look at many aspects of a device’s performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools.

It is worth noting that I cannot find any information on exactly what is being transmitted to Carrier IQ or to the device manufacturer. However, it is clear that this statement is simply wrong, based on the video released on Monday, which shows that keystrokes, button presses and location data are all being recorded.

We can, however, get an idea of what Carrier IQ receives based on this Hacker News post and the included screenshots. I’ve mirrored one example in case the company decides to remove it from their site. They’ve also published a document on some “features” of their software (PDF link). It is clear that what is being tracked and submitted is well beyond any reasonable user expectations.

By the way, Apple had a small scandal earlier this year over iOS’s tendency to store cell tower location information. The story broke on April 20, 2011, Apple issued a plain-language response a week later and an update to fix the bug one week after that. In two weeks, Apple admitted there was a problem and fixed it.

It’s been two weeks, and all Carrier IQ has to show for it is a sloppy press release that dodges questions instead of answering them.