Apple: Carrier IQ dropped from most products with iOS 5

You can’t green text here.

And why not? We know that Android phones don’t use Carrier IQ at all!

I’m guessing carrier specific iOS 5 phones.

Well Apple’s implementation never logged all the stuff that some of the other phones are doing. Even under iPhone 3G its under diagnostic purposes and you have to opt-in, not opt-out. But, I think when Apple removed the Ad network apps that were tracking all kinds of data, they made a pledge or at least a statement about requiring as minimal data as possible, anonymized, and something about relevancy (i.e. they started cracking down on apps that ask for your location, but don’t provide location based services, etc.).

Just what AT&T needs: more bad publicity.

That might make any sense at all if Google were the one implementing IQ Agent. They weren’t. It was the carriers and phone manufacturers that did it., whose customer base is NOT advertisers, but customers. Which completely invalidates your whole premise.

Google can be trusted precisely because its customers are advertisers. Let me put it another way. Google is not in fact in the software business, or even in the service business – it is in the trust business, If Google’s users ever believe that Google is nosing in places that it shouldn’t, Google’s entire operations could be devastated. As such Google probably spends more time thinking about privacy than any other major corporation.

I also trust Apple, for the same reasons that you give.

You’re ridiculous. At the end of the day, its all about making money. Google makes money from advertising. Apple makes money from selling hardware. You’re judging a company based on how they make money. Look at the tobacco industry. They make money harming people. This is morally bad. You can’t trust tobacco companies. That being said, Apple employs foxconn in China which basically treats their employees like slaves and drives them to suicide. Yet Apple still employees this company, thus condoning unethical treatment of employees. But they’re the only company you can trust. Give me a break. You think they care about you? They care about the mighty dollar and that’s it. Hell, they killed off all charitable donations under Steve Job’s leadership. Yeah, super awesome company there. Stop being delusional.

Well, I don’t know if it is necessarily a case for more trust exactly, but there is definitely something to be said about Apple’s business model. It is pretty straightforward, no-bullshit, “lemonade stand” sort of capitalism. They make a widget, they sell their widget, people buy it, and that’s about the end of it.

You don’t see Apple playing with their sticker prices to incentivize sales. Filling their computers with bloatware and stickers to subsidize prices(iPhone carrier subsidy notwithstanding) or having established ‘Loss Leader" product lines(the closest thing I can think of is iTunes itself). They don’t tend to do anything other than present their product, ask what they ask for it, and let the market do the rest. At the very least it is a pretty stark contrast to the established model of the dot-com bubble the likes of which Dell, HP, Gateway, Compaq, eMachines and others attempted, which was do everything possible to make the sticker price appealing and make up the difference on volume and high-end/enterprise pricing. Considering how many of those companies went bust and how even HP is having doubts about their place in the business, I think it is safe to say that was never a very good strategy for the long haul.

But, all that being said, they are still a business and just like Google or MS, if they burn some users in pursuit of expanding and sustaining their business they aren’t exactly going to shed any tears either. Also, with Apple especially they have a tendency to become very myopic about things that fall outside of their immediate concerns. They have let product lines languish and become essentially useless, they have completely ignored the professional community, they have pissed off more than a few independent developers with App Store policies and ultimately, with Apple, whenever you fall outside of the ecosystem/solutions they are trying to present, you basically stop existing to them, user or not.

Google is a fantastic company with a proven track record of protecting consumer data. If I were you I’d completely trust them with all of my private information (especially the demographically viable stuff).

- Your friendly neighborhood AdWords Account manager

It’s incredible that your pathetic fanboy comment got so many recommends. Tells much about the general audience of this site.

Now on the subject, according to Ars’ coverage on this, only the iphone4 still has CarrierIQ software even with Ios5 installed, and it is not opt in/out as it functions separately from Ios5 diagnostics settings(which is off by default).

I agree, I would have liked them to be specific as to which iOS devices with iOS5 still support this code.