Feds probing Carrier IQ in phone tracking

Federal investigators are probing allegations that Carrier IQ software found on about 150 million cellphones tracked user activity and sent the information to the cellphone companies without informing consumers, according to government officials.

Executives from Carrier IQ traveled to Washington Tuesday and met with officials at the Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for protecting consumers and enforcing privacy laws, and at the Federal Communications Commission.

The controversy over the Silicon Valley company erupted a few weeks ago when security researcher Trevor Eckhart discovered evidence that a piece of software developed by Carrier IQ and found on smartphones captured every keystroke and text message written by users and sent the information on the handsets to carriers.

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. Carrier IQ has said its software is not designed to capture keystrokes or messages but in some cases that may have happened by accident. The data are intended to help improve user experience with smartphones, the company said.

Woods said Carrier IQ chief executive Larry Lenhart and Andrew Coward, senior vice president for marketing, met with FTC and FCC officials and some congressional staffers.

Major cellular providers AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have said they use the company's software in line with their own privacy policies. A Verizon spokesman said the program is not present on any of the company's mobile devices.

Apple has said it would remove Carrier IQ from iPhones in a future software update.