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Analyzing Carrier IQ Profiles
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Comments (6)
Without giving away too much, I'll simply say:
I'll be a Scrooge with my money, and they won't care how cr@ppy my experience is.
I'll be a Scrooge with my money, and they won't care how cr@ppy my experience is.
People realize its not just CIQ, the carriers has lots of power and they are very responsible for this. CarrierIQ is just taking the fall for them, and they'll continue to spy on you afterward as usual.
If you don't want carrierIQ, buy international phones since carrierIQ seems to be for American released phones only. This is the reason why America always seems to get some really good phones months after its been released internationally.
Personally I feel HTC have tons and tons of data mining in itself even without CIQ, just too many things running in the background of the HTC phones I tried. Also please do not forget, Android phones uses an operating system developed by Google.
Also if you are willing to mess with your phone, you can root, install cwm to install a custom rom that is carrierIQ free: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192661
Until vast amount of consumers becomes outraged and stop buying their phones and plans, then they won't change their ways. But this trend isn't even going to stop.
If you don't want carrierIQ, buy international phones since carrierIQ seems to be for American released phones only. This is the reason why America always seems to get some really good phones months after its been released internationally.
Personally I feel HTC have tons and tons of data mining in itself even without CIQ, just too many things running in the background of the HTC phones I tried. Also please do not forget, Android phones uses an operating system developed by Google.
Also if you are willing to mess with your phone, you can root, install cwm to install a custom rom that is carrierIQ free: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192661
Until vast amount of consumers becomes outraged and stop buying their phones and plans, then they won't change their ways. But this trend isn't even going to stop.
They consider the phone theirs -- not yours.
I was just on the phone earlier today with FIDO (one of the larger carriers here in Canada) about unlocking an old phone (Motorola Razr v3) that a relative had originally acquired through them on a contract.
To make a long story short, even if my relative -- the original owner -- asked, himself, they would still require $50 to unlock the phone.
They tried to fob me off with techno baffle-gab about how much effort it made for them to unlock the phone. When I pointed out the flaw in this BS (they need merely look up the unlock code associated with the phone's IMIE number, they switched to arguing that it was expensive to look that up. When I pointed out that the credit-card industry handled much more complex look-ups every time someone makes or verifies a credit-card transaction, at an amazingly cheaper price, they argued that they had sold a subsidized "FIDO phone". When I pointed out that the phone was paid off and no longer subject to contract "concerns", and not their property anymore, etc, they ran out of excuses. Even when I pointed out that it appeared the only justification left was that they seem able to get away with such nonsense, it didn't matter.
I figure I could probably buy a better phone outright, for the same price -- and this experience did not fill me with good feelings for the company or optimism about dealing with them, I made it clear that as far as I was concerned, the final result was that they had ensured that I would not consider them as a future provider of my phone(s) or service -- my business will definitely go elsewhere.
Of course, they are probably not remarkable in this regard. And I wasn't really surprised -- just slightly stonkered at the complacent attitude displayed by even the customer service staff. These days, Ernestine doesn't just work for the (cell-phone) company -- she's the CEO !
I was just on the phone earlier today with FIDO (one of the larger carriers here in Canada) about unlocking an old phone (Motorola Razr v3) that a relative had originally acquired through them on a contract.
To make a long story short, even if my relative -- the original owner -- asked, himself, they would still require $50 to unlock the phone.
They tried to fob me off with techno baffle-gab about how much effort it made for them to unlock the phone. When I pointed out the flaw in this BS (they need merely look up the unlock code associated with the phone's IMIE number, they switched to arguing that it was expensive to look that up. When I pointed out that the credit-card industry handled much more complex look-ups every time someone makes or verifies a credit-card transaction, at an amazingly cheaper price, they argued that they had sold a subsidized "FIDO phone". When I pointed out that the phone was paid off and no longer subject to contract "concerns", and not their property anymore, etc, they ran out of excuses. Even when I pointed out that it appeared the only justification left was that they seem able to get away with such nonsense, it didn't matter.
I figure I could probably buy a better phone outright, for the same price -- and this experience did not fill me with good feelings for the company or optimism about dealing with them, I made it clear that as far as I was concerned, the final result was that they had ensured that I would not consider them as a future provider of my phone(s) or service -- my business will definitely go elsewhere.
Of course, they are probably not remarkable in this regard. And I wasn't really surprised -- just slightly stonkered at the complacent attitude displayed by even the customer service staff. These days, Ernestine doesn't just work for the (cell-phone) company -- she's the CEO !
I always buy my mobile phone outright, then sign up with a carrier.
I quite agree -- though I have questions about the pricing of new, unlocked cell-phones, too.
But in this case I wasn't buying a phone -- I already had a perfectly adequate one, and merely wanted to be able to use it as I see fit.
But in this case I wasn't buying a phone -- I already had a perfectly adequate one, and merely wanted to be able to use it as I see fit.
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I'm forwarding this to the EFF to add to their library, hoping that it will help nail this down. In the mean time, until this keystroke monitoring issue is resolved, I'm certainly not going to be using my smartphone for anything important or private.
I would encourage other LXer readers to check their phones. Let's all pitch in and help the EFF win this battle.