The government's interest in smartphone tracking software vendor Carrier IQ is heating up: the Washington Post reports that CIQ executives are in DC this week to meet with the FCC, FTC, and congressional staffers about their software and associated privacy concerns. The meetings come after significant attention from Congress: Senator Al Franken issued a pair of scathing letters demanding to know exactly what the software can track and how the data is handled, and Representative Edward Markey asked the FTC to determine if the installation of Carrier IQ's software was unfair or deceptive to consumers. The FTC in particular has been extremely agressive in protecting consumer privacy lately: it's pushed Google, Facebook, and Twitter into long-term settlement agreements with minimum privacy standards and regular audit commitments. We'd love to see the same sort of framework imposed on carriers and manufacturers when it comes to tracking software of this kind, but we'll wait and see what comes out of DC this week.

Update: In a statement to AllThingsD, CIQ says that it "sought meetings with the FTC and FCC to educate the two agencies about the functionality of its software and answer any and all questions" and isn't aware of any "official investigation." One way or another, all these entities are speaking.