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OT? - Trevor Eckhart Speaks: The Connecticut 'Geek' Who Ignited The Carrier IQ Smartphone Privacy Scandal

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Trevor+Eckhart&FORM=ESLATE

http://articles.courant.com/2011-12-05/business/hc-carrier-iq-phone-eckhart-20111203_1_youtube-videos-smartphones-software


December 05, 2011|By MATTHEW STURDEVANT, [e-mail], The Hartford CourantTORRINGTON — — Tinkering with an Android phone, Trevor Eckhart became a veritable Toto, pulling away the curtain on hidden software that apparently tracks every keystroke users make on their smartphones.

The Eagle Scout from Torrington posted his exposé in two YouTube videos, igniting a national firestorm over whether the software, made by Mountain View, Calif.-based Carrier IQ, records smartphone users' every move, and whether all that data is sent back to service providers such as Verizon and Sprint. He had heard vaguely about the software, investigated it and discovered what it was doing.

Eckhart, 25, who works with an online group that builds customized apps for tablets and smartphones, said he and others have known about the software for months.

"It's just been a dirty little secret, but nobody's said anything about it," Eckhart said in an interview with The Courant. "So, I put enough information that I thought anybody would be able to understand, and I made the information public because I feel this is wrong."

The posting went viral and led to blanket coverage on tech websites, and reports by the Washington Post, BBC, Fox News and National Public Radio. U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., on Thursday called for stricter electronic privacy laws. On Friday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., expressed "serious concern" about the practice and demanded answers in a letter to Carrier IQ's CEO.

The flap over Carrier IQ is the latest incident in an evolving national debate about privacy and personal technology, as advocates and elected officials launch accusations at software firms and Internet and telecom service companies.

For Eckhart, the maelstrom has meant about 1,000 emails and has brought job offers from Silicon Valley companies. The second of two YouTube videos, which Eckhart posted Nov. 28, had more than 1.6 million hits a week later.

He calls himself a self-taught "geek since forever," who was building computers using various parts since before he was 10. Eckhart's web site says he's a systems integrator for Intergis LLC, and was a certified Staples in-house technician when he was a teenager.

Eckhart said he attended Tunxis Community College, but stopped taking classes because he was bored and believed he knew more than the professors.

Now, he's suddenly a central figure — this month, at least — in the hot territory between technology and public policy. "I think this really shows the public is concerned about this thing, too — that I wasn't the only one not aware this was running on my phone," Eckhart said.

Speaking of the outcry, he added, "I think it's a good thing that's happening, and I hope that maybe some new laws can be passed, something to that effect. … The mobile phone industry's kind of like the Wild West right now, and there's no one to keep them in check."

Exactly what the software does remains a matter of debate and discovery.

Carrier IQ said in a statement Thursday: "We measure and summarize performance of the device to assist Operators in delivering better service. While a few individuals have identified that there is a great deal of information available to the Carrier IQ software inside the handset, our software does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS messages, email, photographs, audio or video."

On Friday, the company's director of marketing, Andrew Coward, told CNNMoney that Carrier IQ was shocked to learn its software is tracking every keystroke, every website visited, every text message sent. "We're as surprised as anybody to see all that information flowing," he told the news outlet. "It raises a lot of issues for the industry."

Coward told CNNMoney that it appeared the logging of keystroke data was the result of software added by service carriers, but he said, "We don't know enough at this point."

The company did not respond to a phone inquiry Friday about Blumenthal's letter.

Eckhart said that he may consider job offers from Silicon Valley companies, but for now he's just dealing with an onslaught of phone calls and emails.

Carrier IQ's attorney, Joseph J. Dullea, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Eckhart on Nov. 16, after Eckhart posted the first video, saying his website referred to the company's training videos, which are available online. Dullea wrote, "Your actions constitute copyright infringement. … The consequences of copyright infringement include statutory damages of between $750 and $30,000 per work at the discretion of the court, and damages of up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement."

Eckhart sought pro-bono legal assistance from the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which promises to defend "your rights in the digital world." The foundation said Carrier IQ backed off its threat on Nov. 28, with a statement from its CEO, Larry Lenhart: "Our action was misguided and we are deeply sorry for any concern or trouble that our letter may have caused Mr. Eckhart. We sincerely appreciate and respect EFF's work on his behalf, and share their commitment to protecting free speech in a rapidly changing technological world."

Blumenthal, in his letter to Lenhart, wrote: "I am writing to express my serious concerns about Carrier IQ's privacy practices as they pertain to the collection of data from smart phones. I am equally and deeply troubled by your company's response to Connecticut residents who discovered and questioned these practices."

Blumenthal asked the company to explain what devices have the software, what information the software collects, whether the information has been shared and with whom.

At least one industry expert questions whether the information is being collected via the company's server, or is simply logged in the phone itself. Dan Rosenberg, writing on PasteBin.com, said, "There's a big difference between 'Look, it does something when I press a key' and 'It's sending all my keystrokes to the carrier!' Based on what I've seen, there is no code in Carrier IQ that actually records keystrokes for data collection purposes."

Eckhart said his work involves basically tricking out smartphones. "The entire phone is what we can customize," he said. "So, you want your home screen to be in a circle instead of a square, or you want, when your dialer comes up, you want the buttons to look blue on the phone — that's the kind of stuff. Android lets you modify the phone kind of however you want. Like, I have a phone here that runs my whole house. It does my entertainment center, my movies, all of that stuff."

For Eckhart, the Carrieer IQ software raises a lot of questions about disclosure. For example, if mobile users have service contracts that say the carrier reserves the right to monitor usage, then how clear is that language to customers?

"I feel that any sort of activity that's logging anything about you, no matter what it is, should have an opt in, opt out," Eckhart said. "This application, you have no choice. You have to use it."