FBI May Use Carrier IQ Data in Investigations

As a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) stated that they couldn’t give out too much information on the matter of Carrier IQ since it may interfere with one of their ongoing investigations.

In a recent interview given to The Verge, Carrier IQ claims that the data they collect depends very much on their customer. While they admit that tons of it is collected on their servers, they also mention that on average they retain it only for about 30 days.

This issue aside, the interesting thing is that the FBI may also have access to all the SMSs and other content on mobile devices.

The FOIA request made by MuckRock for “manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ” was denied by the Bureau.

The reason was that the materials they would have to disclose could seriously affect an ongoing inquiry, according to the FBI’s response:

“The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure pursuant to 5 U.S.C 552(b)(7)(A). 5 U.S.C 552(b)(7)(A) exempts from disclosure: records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information…could reasonably be expected to interfere win enforcement proceedings…”

This rather complicates the situation a bit. While wireless carriers and mobile device vendors report to be using the gathered information to “improve customer experience,” what does the FBI have to do with it?

It’s true that the denial for the FOIA doesn’t reveal much. They may be investigating Carrier IQ, or they may be using their services for who knows how long in their investigations.

Whichever the case, this only comes to further prove that everything we do online is closely monitored. By Carrier IQ, probably the authorities, and who knows what malicious Russian hackers.