Carrier IQ Investigated by Federal Commissions Already

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As expected, Carrier IQ is being investigated by Federal Commissions, and the company will have to continue to explain its business practices regarding its mobile software that can gather all sorts of data for smartphone makers and carriers, including SMS messages, web searches and other private data that should not be accessible to such software in the first place.

The Senate is already investigating Carrier IQ, and the company has been hit with a variety of class action lawsuits alongside some of its carrier partners as well as certain smartphone makers. Now the Washington Post reports that executives from Carrier IQ have met with officials from the Federal Trade Commission as well as representatives from the Federal Communications Commission.

The FTC’s investigation is apparently underway, although it has not been officially confirmed:

The FTC probe was confirmed by officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is private. An FTC spokeswoman said she could not confirm or deny whether the agency was investigating Carrier IQ. But a spokeswoman for Carrier IQ said that company executives were cooperating with federal investigators.

“We are complying with all investigations at this time as we have nothing to hide,” said Mira Woods, of Carrier IQ’s marketing communications department. “We have been completely transparent through this process.”

What’s also interesting is that Carrier IQ stated that it has not helped any governmental agencies with their investigations, including the FBI:

The company also released a statement about Carrier IQ and the FBI, saying that their data “is not designed for law enforcement agencies and to our knowledge has never been used by law enforcement agencies.”

A few days ago we saw the FBI deny a Freedom of Information request that asked for more details about Carrier IQ by saying that the information requested is part of an investigative file and can’t be disclosed. Does that mean the FBI is investigating Carrier IQ as well? The Bureau has not commented on the situation yet.