Voodoo Android App Sniffs Out Carrier IQ

A partially completed Android app, the Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, has been released by an independent developer.

This comes in response to the outrage caused when the software Carrier IQ, identified by Android app developer Trevor Eckhart, was made public this week.

Nowhere to hide

Carrier I logs every key press logs every key press, records text messages and information transmitted over the secure protocol https designed to encrypt data and cannot simply be removed from the many smartphones which have it installed.

The Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, created by Android developer François Simond, nicknamed supercurio, identifies whether a smartphone has any Carrier IQ tracking or monitoring software installed and gives users a simple way of ensuring that their privacy has not been compromised.

According to THN News, the tool is only hours old and incomplete but the developer, who has warned that “results can’t be entirely relied on yet”, has made the source code available so that others may assist in refining it.

Despite the upset that this app has caused UK users, there remain doubts as to whether any local service providers have implemented it. Since its US discovery, many UK providers have come out with denials and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has also weighed in on the matter, stating that it was currently not aware of any UK service providers running the product and that if such software were to be introduced, it would have to meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

“The first principle of the Act is about fair and lawful processing of data to ensure privacy. Unless the data collected is fully anonymised, retaining no personal information at all, companies adopting such technology, would clearly have to comply with the DPA and, where there were any doubts, we would expect to be consulted on the matter,” a spokesperson told eWEEK Europe.