BUSTED! Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps

The Register (UK) ^ | 30th November 2011 | Dan Goodin

[phockthis]

details could prove useful for those who aren’t techies

[Jack Hydrazine]

Win7 has back doors put into the OS at the request of our US intel agencies.

[KrisKrinkle]

“Buy disposable phones, use them and toss them.”

I never quite understood how that has more than limited utility. It’s useful to a point as long as everybody doesn’t do it, but if everybody does it how do you keep up with the constantly changing phone numbers in order to call the people you want to call?

[reagan_fanatic]

Our technology is not real time,” he said at the time. "It's not constantly reporting back. It's gathering information up and is usually transmitted in small doses.”

Oh, well, that makes me feel much better.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Apple just went through this, didn't they?

Why yes, now that you mention it, I think they did. In that case, AFAIK, only the privacy of location data was at issue. We are told here that CIQ is also a key logger and even a voice "wiretap."

Eckhart said he chose the HTC phone purely for demonstration purposes. Blackberrys, other Android-powered handsets, and smartphones from Nokia contain the same snooping software, he claims.

I notice the omission of any claim that CIQ spyware is in the iPhone.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Where is the app to kill this?

[5thGenTexan]

LINUX and its apps are somewhat more secure in that respect, however, it is not impregnable in the hands of a skilled hacker.

You site that the MS OS's have this built in and Linux is more secure, but the story here is about Android having it - which is Linux based.

[RSmithOpt]

True.....there are several versions of LINUX however, and Android doesn’t use a full blown version.