Following yesterday’s chilling news that many smartphones, including most Nokia, RIM, and Android-based devices, are logging everything you do on your device, Forbes reports that Senator Al Franken, Chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and Law, has issued a letter to Carrier IQ demanding some answers.
According to yesterday’s report, the hidden Carrier IQ software keeps a log of phone calls, text messages, and other sensitive data, and may be storing the data on Carrier IQ’s privately owned servers.
Senator Franken’s letter asks for Carrier IQ to clarify exactly what their software does, what information it stores, whether or not that information is sent to Carrier IQ’s servers, how long it’s stored, and so forth.
Carrier IQ has been asked to respond by no later December 14, and hopefully they comply, and will be able to provide some of the answers (whether good or bad) that smartphone users everywhere are wondering about.
Senator Franken was also a key figure in looking into Apple’s “LocationGate” controversy earlier this year, expressing that he had serious doubts about how well privacy was protected on mobile devices. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
The full text of Senator Franken’s letter to Carrier IQ can be found over at Forbes.
