VIDEO: Your Android phone is probably spying on you

Dan Seitz Contributing Writer, Tech

We can’t be funny about this: this is bad. This is very, very, VERY bad. If you own an Android phone, you need to be aware of this.

Essentially, everything you do on your Android phone is collected and sent to somebody by a program called Carrier IQ, and until now, nobody knew about it. How bad it is it?

Bad enough that you should probably trade in your phone. What it is, a list of safe phones, and what to do under the jump.

Carrier IQ is what’s commonly called a rootkit: software buried deep, deep inside your electronic’s operating system that’s almost impossible to avoid. If the term sounds familiar, it’s probably because your antivirus has rooted out one or two. They’re nasty little pieces of work and Carrier IQ is set up so as to be impossible to avoid.

What does it collect? Everything. Passwords. Text messages. Who you’re calling. Web searches. Where you are. It doesn’t matter if you’ve opted out of collecting this data elsewhere; Carrier IQ collects it anyway. And even worse, it does it even if you’re on a private Wi-Fi connection.

Why does it collect it? For marketing purposes, essentially. But there’s no evidence of what else the information may be used for.

This video from a developer explains the issue: fast forward to 9:00 for the really problematic stuff.

Who is affected? First, the safe phones: Windows Mobile phones, Nokia phones, any phone distributed by Verizon, and Google Nexus phones all seem to lack Carrier IQ. Everyone else, especially Android users, are likely to at least have traces of Carrier IQ. And yes, iPhones have it, but in a turned-off state for now.

How can you remove it? Well, that’s the problem; it’s designed so that you can’t. It’s possible to install a customized OS, but that’s not really a viable solution for a lot of people. The best thing to do is to trade your corrupt phone in for a “safe” phone.

The most effective thing you can do: call your carrier and get angry. If possible, as much as it pains us to say this, take your business to Verizon, which seems to have rejected the software outright, although they have privacy problems of their own. Your current carrier may have sold you a product that compromises your privacy and quite possibly your personal safety, and never told you about it.

Then, write your Congressman. It takes five seconds, and if they get enough angry emails, they’ll do something.

Your Android Phone Is Secretly Recording Everything You Do [Gizmodo]

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