"[1] On January 27, 2009, CEO Mark Quinlivan announced Carrier IQ had received $20 million Series C financing from Intel Capital, and Presidio Ventures, a Sumitomo Corporation Company.
[6] On February 9, 2009, Carrier IQ announced a partnership with Huawei Technologies to develop a "new range of data cards that will provide improved feedback on the mobile broadband user experience.
[17] At Mobile World Congress 2012, Carrier IQ announced an extension to its IQ Care product with a "customer-facing dashboard", relaying information that they'd usually send to wireless companies—such as battery life, network coverage, app's effect on phone performance, and dropped calls coverage—directly to consumers in an effort to reduce technical support calls.
[20] Its board of directors in November 2011 were:[21] IQ Agent is software, typically pre-installed on mobile devices by handset manufacturers or network operators, designed to gather, store and forward diagnostic measurements on their behalf.
Whenever a mobile device uploads data, the IQ Agent can also download a new profile to change the selection of metrics gathered.
IQ Agent was first shipped in 2006 on embedded feature phones and has since been implemented on numerous devices and operating systems, including smartphones (Android, RIM,[24] iPhone), USB modems and tablets.
IQ Insight is a suite of applications that gathers, analyzes and presents KPIs generated by MSIP through a web-based GUI (graphical user interface).
The application delivers data through a geospatial or tabular view of issues (such as dropped calls or no-service conditions) and allows cross-domain analysis of KPIs.
"[30][31] Eckhart sought and received the backing of user rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
[32] In the statement of apology, Carrier IQ denied allegations of keystroke logging and other forms of tracking, and offered to work with the EFF.
[33] On November 28, 2011, Eckhart published a YouTube video that demonstrates Carrier IQ software in the act of logging, as plain text, a variety of keystrokes.
Included in the demonstration were clear-text captures of passwords to otherwise secure websites, and activities performed when the cellular network was disabled.
The data we gather is transmitted over an encrypted channel and secured within our customers' networks or in our audited and customer-approved facilities ... Carrier IQ acts as an agent for the operators.
When a user calls to complain about a problem, our software helps operators' customer service to more quickly identify the specific issue with the phone.
Participants in the videotaped panel discussion were Mike Short, Vice President, Telefónica Europe; Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive Analysis; Charlotte Patric, Principal Analyst, Gartner; and Martyn Warwick, Moderator, TelecomTV.
[47][48][49][50][51] Generally speaking, analytics companies collect, synthesize, and present aggregated user information to their customers to help them reduce maintenance costs, increase revenue, and improve the performance of a particular product.
This method of connecting is extremely common, as many users seek to keep their cellular data charges as low as possible by also utilizing their home or corporate wireless networks.
Sprint said, "We collect enough information to understand the customer experience with devices on our network and how to address any connection problems, but we do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool ...
The press release said, "Together, they will deliver critical insights into the consumer experience of mobile phone and tablet users worldwide, which adhere to Nielsen's measurement science and privacy standards.
This alliance will leverage Carrier IQ's technology platform to gather actionable intelligence on the performance of mobile devices and networks.
[58] A request to the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act for "any manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ" was denied, citing pending law enforcement proceeding.