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A Push for Privacy in the Wake of the Carrier IQ Controversy
Remember Carrier IQ, the company that makes the secret spying software that’s installed on more than 140 million phones? You know, the software that can record our most sensitive personal data?
Cellphone companies including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile use Carrier IQ to track what smartphone users are doing on their phones, but it’s unclear what data is being tracked and what is being done with that information. While both these companies and Carrier IQ claim they want our most sensitive information only to diagnose hardware and software problems, the public — and some members of Congress — still have questions about what, exactly, this powerful software can do.
Thanks in part to the 22,000 people who joined Free Press’ call for a congressional investigation, some of those questions are closer to being answered and mobile users are closer to being protected.
The protection comes in the form of a bill from Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. Markey released a draft of a bill called the “Mobile Device Privacy Act” that would require phone companies to disclose to users just what is being done with all of their data. If the bill passes, an opt-out provision would go into effect a year later and would require companies to allow users to opt out of data-collection schemes like the one developed by Carrier IQ.
The second bit of good news is a request from Reps. G.K. Butterfield, Diana DeGette and Henry Waxman to hold a committee hearing on Carrier IQ and consumer privacy. “There continue to be many unanswered questions about the handling of this data and the extent to which its collection, analysis and transmission pose legitimate privacy concerns for the American public,” they wrote.
It’s not OK for companies to collect or sell our data under a veil of secrecy. Rep. Markey’s bill and the call for a hearing will help stop the practice. Let’s hope both items move forward.
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6 Comments so far
Show AllI hope it doesn't get shelved, but I fear it will.
i sympathize with this writer and his point is well taken but it is not from the real world
fact is the nsa and other security entities have been monitoring our mail and phones for 60 years
there is no such thing as privacy anymore and folks would be well advised to remember that in all online situations
further this data is warehoused forever and surfing anonymously is something that only elite surfers can do for the most part
so if you want to pop into ladyboydelight.com - keep that in mind
there is no privacy
as leonard cohen said: the jazz police are looking at your folders...
btw. this post is not a plug for ladyboydelight.com
Several years ago, in response to a question about on-line privacy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems said: "You have no privacy. Get over it."
This article poses an important issue, but I think the author reaches the wrong conclusion. Americans love their "privacy." It has legal meaning and the US Supreme Court has talked about it often.
But as medmedude pointed out, the government has invaded citizens' privacy for years. David Brin, a scientist and science fiction writer, addressed this topic in his nonfiction book, The Transparent Society. Brin argues that privacy means little when governments remain secret, and argues for true transparency of information. In other words, no privacy as freedom, because it takes privacy away from the evil doers, too.
In other words, the problem isn't so much that the government can invade our privacy, the problem is we don't know squat about what our government and their corporate rulers are doing. We need transparency in the other direction.
It always amazes me when people -- often famous or semi-famous people -- send lascivious words and pictures, believing that the messages will only be seen by the intended recipient, and then get all shocked and chagrined when what's sent goes viral so suddenly the whole world is watching. George Orwell would be astonished, were he to come back alive today (I wouldn't wish it on him), at all the tools Big Brother now has to watch us.
I think it's only just begun. Soon the water in public toilets will check us for drugs and use our DNA to establish who we are and the built in GPS systems in our every contraption to know where we are so they can grab us up if they want to.
Do you honestly think that (very unlikely) the Supremes were to rule that that program and database were absolutely illegal and shall not be used or installed, it would end? If the HS Gestapo thought it was a good idea, it would stay in use, but would no longer be mentioned or admitted to.
I've been pretty sure for years that Microsoft, Apple, and the various other systems have back doors in their software that lets the government enter at will, to see what you are doing. Sort of like 1984's telescreens. You watch it, but never know when it is watching you. Hence, you guard your expression and speech at all times, and hope you don't talk in your sleep, lest you be vaporized.
About the only difference between us and Winston in 1984 is that the level of technology has expanded far beyond what Orwell conceived as possible. All to our detriment, of course.
The overt oppression has only begun so far, but it will surely grow as time passes and the government gets still more paranoid.
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