Carrier IQ Retracts Their C&D, Apologizes To The Android Researcher They Hassled

Yesterday afternoon, we wrote about an Android developer who’d received a cease-and-desist letter from Carrier IQ, a company whose Android software he’d been investigating.

This morning, under the light of a dozen spotlights, Carrier IQ has retracted their C&D and publicly apologized to the developer.

In the months prior to receiving the C&D, developer Trevor Eckhart had published his findings that a number of Android phones (primarily Sprint’s) came out of the box with a nearly unnoticeable bit of software (built by Carrier IQ). This software, claimed Eckhart, could monitor everything from which apps were installed to which keys were pressed.

While Carrier IQ uses the press release to ensure that their software does nothing nefarious of the sort, they’ve apologized for taking the course of actions that they took.

From the release:

As, of today, we are withdrawing our cease and desist letter to Mr. Trevor Eckhart. We have reached out to Mr. Eckhart and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to apologize. 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.

You can find the full text of the release below.

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