Yesterday, Apple issued the following statement on Carrier IQ's stealth logging software and iOS devices:
We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update.With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.
We were relieved that Apple wasn't using Carrier's IQ's stealth logging software and wasn't buckling down to pressure from carriers who insist that software should be pre-installed on mobile phones. It turns out that we were partially wrong to come to that conclusion.
Ars Technica wasn't completely satisfied with Apple's response, they were curious to find out what Apple meant by "most of our products" so the y asked Apple. Apple has told them that Carrier IQ software still runs on iPhone 4.
In response to our question, Apple tells us there is only one device running iOS 5 that still runs Carrier IQ, and it's the iPhone 4. Other devices running iOS 5, such as the iPad, the new iPhone 4S, and older iPhone models updated to iOS 5 have had Carrier IQ stripped out. But Apple says it has never used Carrier IQ to record keystrokes or personal messages.
Thankfully, iPhone users can choose to disable the logging by simply going to Settings -> General -> About -> Diagnostics & Usage -> Don't Send.
Apple promises to remove it completely in a future software update from all iOS devices including iPhone 4.
Though it's good to know that Apple isn't logging web searches, messages etc. like Android based smartphones and there is a way to disable it, we're a little disappointed that Apple did not mention it when they issued the statement yesterday.
We wonder why Apple decided to leave Carrier IQ's software running only on iPhone 4. Any guesses?
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