On Thursday, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Motorola Mobility Inc. confirmed that some of their mobile devices did, in fact, contain Carrier IQ Inc. software that collected user data.
The admission comes in response to calls from U.S. lawmakers to beef up safeguards of customer privacy.
According to a report from Bloomberg, approximately 450,000 T-Mobile customers “use nine devices containing the software that provides data including telephone numbers dialed and received.”
T-Mobile maintains that it doesn’t use the software to view texts, e-mails, photos, videos or monitor voice messages, log keystrokes or Internet activity.
“Motorola Mobility neither received nor had access to any data collected by the Carrier IQ software, with the exception of approximately 125 devices used for testing the Carrier IQ software implementation,” T-Mobile says.
The software is used only “to obtain data about the nearest cell phone tower,” the company added, while noting that “customers expect us to take pro-active steps, including the use of reasonable diagnostic tools, to ensure network reliability and enhance our customers’ device experience.”
