Carrier IQ only makes the spyware. It's not individually to blame for the gaffes and privacy invasions of the carriers, just as the electronics makers who manufacture pinhole webcams that can be hidden in pens or teddy bears or the buttons on a suit aren't responsible for the wiretap and eavesdropping laws its customers violate.
By repeatedly and loudly defending itself, however, Carrier IQ distracts customers from the failure of any carrier to come clean about the data it's collecting, measures it takes to ensure that data isn't misused and offer customers the option of not being monitored.
Lawsuits on behalf of customers and investigations from Congress and various European law enforcement agencies will press carriers on the issue, of course.
It's just hard to take a Dept. of Justice investigation into the uses of Carrier IQ are a little hard to take seriously, though, if not even the FBI will admit what it's been doing with all that covertly gathered information.
The only thing we really know about that is that whatever the feds are doing, whoever they are surveilling, whatever rights they may be violating, is not – no matter what anyone says – Carrier IQ's fault.
Read more of Kevin Fogarty's CoreIT blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @KevinFogarty. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.
Reuters
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