Google Nexus Android phones and original Xoom tablet do not include Carrier IQ tracking software

i am waiting until the gsm version gets here i hate verizon. great service charge you out the ass. or when the importers actually get some i’ll get it..

According to notable iOS dude Grant “chpwn” Paul, different carriers have their own Carrier IQ plist. Notably, this list includes AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, along with the Japanese carrier KDDI. It doesn’t seem to include any other carriers. This is further proof that this is carrier-mandated.

The Nexus S might not come with Carrier IQ, but the Nexus S 4G does.

Rather interesting that it’s a matter of the carriers and OEM’s installing the software.

Nilay, do you have confirmation from security professionals that carrier IQ is NOT on these devices or is this from the horse’s mouth so to speak. It seems a strange dichotomy to me, especially when one considers that these devices are supposed to be the benchmarks for future devices and as you said, have to pass the same compatibility tests.

The only reason I can think of is that because these devices are not expected to ship in any significant volumes and as such, carriers would have no need to really install such software or would derive little benefit.

Also, can you confirm whether the problem is only present in those devices sold directly by carriers or if it applies to all devices from the aforementioned manufacturers. Further to this, can you find out if devices sold outside of the United States have the same or similar software installed and how that may/may not cause problems with the EU?

:) Hope you don’t take this comment the wrong way (totally not a critique.) just a few outstanding questions

These corporate douchebags know no bounds when it comes to trying to make a buck. I hope whoever is responsible gets reamed by the govt with some insanely large fines or something.

Google doesn’t want a third party software to track what I’m doing; it already knows! All hail Google. :-)

All that said, we’re still wondering why Google would reject Carrier IQ from its flagship devices but allow phones with the software to pass the various Android compatibility tests required to license its apps like Gmail, Google Maps, and Android Market.

Google didn’t “reject” it from Nexus devices, they elected not to put it. they are not “the responsible party” for other phones (and as far as we know, CarrierIQ does nothing malicious) so they “allow” it on other android devices.

btw, why aren’t you “wondering” why Apple “allows” it (or even bakes it in)?!?

Google is being run by Indians, managerially and technically. Even though Page and Schmidt are CEO and Executive Chairman of Big G, but still we can’t forget that it was Amit Singhal, an IIT Roorkey Graduate, who re-wrote the whole algorithm of Google Search Engine in 2000 which made Google the best in the industry. Then, Nikesh Arora of BHU-IT is the Chief Business Manager; Vic Goundotra is the man behind the whole Google Plus… and, many many more. Search FAMOUS INDIANS WORKING IN GOOGLE for more details.

you guys make it sound like it is an android issue, even though it is really more of a U.S. Carrier-issue.

europeans don’t have problems like this so this carrier iq argument should at least not be used in the OS war between iOS, Android and co…

i guess thats the price of being able to use “freedom units” as measurement… how ironic :p

i just hope that this extremely reliable source is not google

Niley. Can you try to find answers to the following questions?

Are all keystrokes sent, unencrypted, to our carrier?

If “yes” on previous question, do the carriers sell the data collected from Carrier IQ to third party marketing entities?

Who, if anyone, is profiting monetarily from the data mined by Carrier IQ, and what is the source of this revenue?

Yet another reason why my next upgrade is a Nexus device. A concerning thought though pertaining to Verizon’s Nexus: Is it considered a 100 % PURE google phone considering there’s been seen a little amount of bloatware on the device? its a different device with a different model # than Europe’s.

Why does everything have to turn into a fanboy argument?

Here are the facts:

• CarrierIQ is used by many companies, and probably is included on Windows Phone, to track various stuff. After all, why write your own software when it’s readily available by a company that knows its stuff?

• No one knows exactly what statistics are being kept by CarrierIQ or who is the receiver of this data. It could be that it’s sent directly to the carriers, and not through CarrierIQ. If I was a major phone company, I might find some of these stats useful. (Did it crash doing something? Was a call dropped? Where do calls seem to get dropped? ) And, since you are sending data through the network, most of this data is available directly to the carriers anyway. If they truly wanted to be evil, they have the means already.

Now, getting that out of the way. Let’s look at what is going on with the various phones:

IOS: CarrierIQ seems to be running, but it appears that the data captured is very limited, and it can easily be shutdown by turning selecting “Don’t Send” in “Diagnostics and Usage” setting. This is set by the user when they first turn on their phone. Plus, it appears that the sent logs are stored on the phone for the user to see.

Android: On most Android phones, it appears that CarrierIQ is active and set without user permission. (And don’t give me that crap that the user can see the various permissions. I have no idea what 3/4 of those warning mean, and I’m fairly technical). It also appears to prevent the user from changing the settings. And, it appears to be sending a lot more information. It also appears to be more sneakily included in the phone.

Now is this Google’s issue? Does this make Android evil and the iPhone good? No. However, it does point out something that open source advocates keep forgetting: When you have an open source project, you are basically giving up control. I have worked on many open source projects and remember a few of them forking where the fork became greater than the original project. In highly technical stuff, this is probably okay. However, with consumer devices, this can be problematic. No one can prevent a company say, a company that rhymes with “Bamazon” or “Arms and Noble”, them from taking advantage of your handwork and making something else entirely from it. That’s what the carriers have done with Android. That’s what they like about Android and have been pushing Android.

Yes, you can keep saying “This isn’t Android or Google”, but the truth is that this is really part and parcel of open source software: The ability to take it and modify it for your own purposes, even if your purposes are for pure evil. Nothing is preventing Dr. No from taking over the world by using Linux based software. I didn’t see anything in GPL2 or GPL3 that would prevent that. So, although Android may be “open” and “based upon Linux”, doesn’t make it automatically good and pure. Remember Google isn’t a charitable organization. They give stuff out for free, but expect to make it back by selling your personal information to companies. We know that when we see the ads in Gmail, and we should suspect something when we use Google maps to pinpoint our houses and who we visit.

And, don’t think I’m letting Apple is getting away with it. With Apple, I can’t see what they’re doing because their software is completely proprietary. Of course, Steve Jobs is a vegetarian and a kind hearted human being, so he’d never do anything like that. Well… he was a vegetarian.

I am an iPhone user. I didn’t like Android because I simply didn’t like the UI. It’s slower and not as smooth. It was missing the subtle touches that the iPhone is famous for. For example, the slight bounce that you scroll to the top or bottom. I have no idea what the “back” button on Android phones does, and there are at least three different ways to cut and paste on the damn device. Plus, I don’t want to bother with futzing with my phone. I have several Macs, Linux machines, and Windows machines where I have to keep up to date, watch for security patches, and watch what software I install. I don’t want to bother with that with my phone, thank you.

So, does that make iOS good and Android bad? No. My son uses Android. He likes the clean way it incorporate all of his Google account information. He likes the fact he can customize his phone. He likes the fact that he can go outside of the Android Marketplace and find other software. The software glitches don’t bother him as much.

So, let’s not make this the “Mac vs. PC” fight for the 21st century. If you want to argue about who or what is better, do what the other 90% of the county does: Root for one sports team over another. At least this way, you’ll fit in with the rest of society.

I smell congressional investigation and several class action lawsuits against Carrier IQ, OEMS and especially against the carriers that made the OEMs put Carrier IQ into the phones. This seems like illegal spying/surveillance to me, regardless of what they are using the data for. So now if you want a clean phone you have to root it and put a custom ROM in it that doesn’t include a kernel that has been tampered with?

Everyone should start contacting their congressman and their carrier to ensure that Carrier IQ or any similar software is not installed on their phone without their express permission and that users have the option to opt out and uninstall it.

Do we have any enterprising DA’s out there looking to make a name for themselves?

That Galaxy Nexus I’ve got coming in the mail just keeps looking better and better.

I have a Verizon Android Phone. It is an Androd 2 Global. It does not have CIQ software on it. But it does have software installed on it called KPI Logger which stands for Key Performance Indicator. It is the same kind of banloney spyware software as CIQ. So just because you looked for CIQ software on your phone and didn’t find it does not mean that you are safe and clean. And just becasue Verizon might claim that they don’t have CIQ installed does not mean that they haven’t installed something else. The same goes for other carriers and other phone models. On my Verizon Android 2 Global I looed under all isntalled processes and found this garbage. Check on your phone very carefully before you delare your phone as clean.

Great, on top of OEM’s thick skins, carriers’ bloatware, we have to put up with an always-running agent? No wonder even a dual core phone still lags sometimes.