#1Dec 5th, 2011
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — An embattled phone-monitoring software maker said Friday that its wares, secretly installed on some 150 million phones, have the capacity to log web usage, and to chronicle where and when and to what numbers calls and text messages were sent and received. The Carrier IQ executives, speaking at their nondescript headquarters in a residential neighborhood in the heart of Silicon Valley, told Wired that the data they vacuum to their servers from handsets is vast — as the software also monitors app deployment, battery life, phone CPU output and data and cell-site connectivity, among other things. But, they said, they are not logging every keystroke as a prominent critic suggested.

The data, which gets downloaded from consumers’ phones roughly once a day, is encrypted during transit and also provided to carriers to enhance the “user experience,” these executives said.
“We do recognize the power and value of this data,” Andrew Coward, the chief marketing officer, said. “We’re very aware that this information is sensitive. It’s a treasure trove.”

Carrier IQ came under intense scrutiny the last few days after a Connecticut-based Android developer -- showing the software has enormous access to usage information, and claiming that it logs a user’s every keystroke. The company-- on Friday. What’s more, Democratic Senator Al Franken --

Company executives invited Wired to Carrier IQ offices Friday to debunk the keystroke logging claim. Coward also emphasized that the software does not know the content of websites or apps or text messages or phone calls, but acknowledged that it does transmit website addresses to some carriers as a diagnostic tool.

“We’re seeing URLS and we can capture that information,” Coward said during the two-hour interview.




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