Disabling CarrierIQ on the iPhone

nhtnht
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
"However, Chpwn seems to believe that Carrier IQ works much differently on the iPhone. In fact, disabling its tracking in iOS is as simple as tapping over to the "Diagnostics and Usage" menu in the settings pane and toggling it off. Upon doing so, Chpwn says, no information is shared with Carrier IQ.



For those who don't turn the feature off, Chpwn claims Apple's Carrier IQ installation shares much less information than Android devices. He found that iOS shares "your phone number, your carrier, your country, active phone calls, and your location." However, unlike Android, Apple's installation doesn't share the phone number a user has dialed and only includes location information when "location services are enabled.""



http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57...o-hacker-says/



I found one in:



Settings->General->About



Scroll down to Diagnostic and Usage



Then set to don't send.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    Nice, typo'd the title. Can a mod fix?



    But here are the gory details:



    http://blog.chpwn.com/post/13572216737?fe250de0



    "But is this version of Carrier IQ the same keylogger/rootkit as on Android? The answer appears to be: not quite. It does access a reasonable amount of information, however: (Be sure to note that I have not confirmed which, if any, of this data is sent remotely.)



    CoreTelephony

    your phone number

    your carrier

    your country

    active phone calls

    (However, I only saw it noting that a phone call was active, not what number was dialed or it was received from. But, I am not going to claim it doesn’t do that: it’s certainly possible, but didn’t see it.)

    CoreLocation

    your location (Only, however, if Location Services are enabled.)

    (Possibly more I haven’t yet found.)"
  • Reply 2 of 4
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    Except that this doesn't appear to be an "Android" feature since it isn't resident in the Nexus phones running an unadulterated version of Android.



    That would be an indication that Carrier IQ is being added to Android, Apple, RIM and other smartphones via an agreement with the manufacturers. Apple, Samsung, HTC, RIM, et.al would minimally seem to be directly cooperating with the carrier's, tho Apple may only be working directly with Carrier IQ and not sharing data with the telcos. Their version so far is reported to be less comprehensive, perhaps only used as diagnostics, but even that is preliminary. Over the next couple of weeks we should expect to know more.



    Who's not yet been found to be using Carrier IQ? Microsoft's smartphones!



    If I've misunderstood what's been discovered so far, please correct me.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


    Except that this doesn't appear to be an "Android" feature since it isn't resident in the Nexus phones running an unadulterated version of Android.



    Yah, it's not an android specific thing but it seems like the two manufactures significantly limiting carrier bloat have also either not added CarrierIQ (MS) or limited to something more reasonable (Apple).



    Anything goes Android, not so much.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nht View Post


    Yah, it's not an android specific thing but it seems like the two manufactures significantly limiting carrier bloat have also either not added CarrierIQ (MS) or limited to something more reasonable (Apple).



    Anything goes Android, not so much.



    Verizon reiterated that they do NOT use Carrier IQ, so devices on their network are in the clear. More evidence that this is being done at the telcos request. Both ATT and Sprint are supposedly using it at this juncture.



    http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/1/26...medium=twitter
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