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AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Apple and Motorola Sued Over Carrier IQ Tracking

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Sprint Nextel CorpAll major carriers in United States along with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) are being sued in a class action lawsuit, in which Samsung, HTC and Carrier IQ are also involved.

The class action lawsuit is over the case of smartphone data tracking and privacy issues related to software manufactured by Carrier IQ. The firm has been responsible for installing a software in smartphones manufactured by Apple, Samsung, HTC and Motorola, that acts as a spying tool and tracks the users information.

Two class action lawsuits have already been filed against Samsung, HTC and Carrier IQ last week. On Monday a class action lawsuit was filed against AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), T-Mobile, Samsung, Apple, HTC and Motorola Mobility, in the Untied States District Court of Delaware on Friday. The lawsuit was filed on the behalf of four plaintiffs who use smartphones from Samsung, Apple and HTC and use network services provided by AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. The class action accused the companies of knowingly allowing Carrier IQ to install the spy software into the phones manufactured by Samsung, Motorola Mobility, Apple and HTC.


Carrier IQ has defended itself by saying that the software only collects network related diagnostic information and helps improve the overall service. However the lawsuit claims that in addition to the diagnostic data, the software also collects other personal and location related data from its users. Information such as the location details, applications users, videos watched, web browsing history, and even keys pressed are transferred to the company.

These privacy infringements are against the Federal Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Stored Communication Act. The plaintiff can seek monetary compensation as well as seeking to permanently ban the offending defendant from even committing the act again. In this case block the installation of the spy software from Carrier IQ permanently.

It is uncertain whether the charges will be proven or not and if the class action lawsuit will be agreed by the court. According to smartphone privacy agreements, users are required to agree to allow collection of certain location related data. A few security researchers have disputed the spying claims, and said that the software only collects service related data. Apple last week told that it had used the software provided by Carrier IQ to anonymously record diagnostic information. Apple denied recoding keystrokes or any other form of personal information.

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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