Carrier IQ Investigated in Europe Too

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By now everyone and their cat has heard about the Carrier IQ debacle as the company is already facing severe scrutiny from the press, the general public that likes their privacy to be respected while on the smartphone, the Senate and the courts – three separate class action suits have been filed to date. And that’s not the end of it for Carrier IQ.

On top of all those investigations, the FTC could soon start looking into the spying-software matter, not to mention that European regulators have also started to ask questions about the Carrier IQ software.

According to PCWorld, the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection is already questioning Apple regarding the use of Carrier IQ software, even though Apple already said that not all its iOS devices have the software installed anymore and those that do will be updated to get rid of it.

In the U.K., the Information Commissioner’s Office, “an independent authority set up to uphold data privacy for individuals” and the BEUC, the European Consumer’s Organization, are also monitoring the scandal. The ICO will check with U.K. carriers to se whether Carrier IQ software, or anything similar is used in the region while the BEUC hopes that updated laws on data protection will address such issues in the EU in the future.

Moreover, Vodafone and Orange, two major European carriers, are already said they don’t use the software, with Vodafone regional arm in Portugal having briefly tested Carrier IQ software in 2009 without going forward with commercial deployment.

Carrier IQ seems to have more and more problems to deal with, and it will be interesting to see whether the company will be able to survive following the scandal. It’s probably safe to say that we may see plenty of other commissions look into the affairs of Carrier IQ and every carrier and smartphone maker that did business with the company. Not to mention that, with around 150 million smartphones using the technology that can be exploited to reveal sensitive user data, we may soon see plenty of other class action suits emerge in other countries.

In fact, it will be interesting to see whether Carrier IQ has what it takes to overcome these issues and continue its business. Although, at the end of the day, would anyone still do business with the company?