(guardian)
US federal investigators are looking into claims that software from Carrier IQ, which is installed on about 150m mobile phones, has been used to track user activity and send data to carriers without customers' knowledge.

The Washington Post reported that executives from Carrier IQ travelled to Washington earlier this week to meet officials from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is in charge of enforcing privacy laws to protect consumers, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Meanwhile, the FBI has denied that it has ever sought any data from Carrier IQ for any of its investigations – though its director, Robert Mueller, said it was possible that some data that the FBI had received from mobile carriers might have been collected by Carrier IQ's software.

Speculation had followed the result of a Freedom of Information request in which the FBI was asked how it used that data, and responded with a "standard exemption".

Three of the four biggest US carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint – have said they use the company's software in line with their own privacy policies. In the UK, none of the carriers say that they use the software.

Apple has said that a future software update will remove the software from the iPhone, where it is used for anonymised diagnostic reports that are sent back only with the customer's agreement. The software is installed by carriers on millions of phones using Google's Android software...
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