the rootkit/spyware that's been discovered on various mobile phones: first, Al Franken asking some pointed questions about it (Go, Al! But come on, you're Mr Net Neutrality, anti-corporatism, and you can't figure out why building a Great Firewall of America to "protect copyright" is batshit insane? Seriously?); second, "Google Experience" phones, like the Nexus S, Nexus One and Nexus Galaxy do not have the spyware on them. (Thanks, Alan!)

  • http://profiles.google.com/rchrdfrdmn Richard Friedman

    But consider this: if true and CarrierIQ is receiving all these messages from zillions of Android users in real time, that must be an AWFUL lot of data! And they would probably need an IBM Watson to data mine it with any efficiency. Just keeping up with the constant flood of data would be nearly impossible unless you filtered the data and just grabbed the most important stuff and threw out the rest. I’d like to see some statement about the amount of data per hour they receive from these feeds. Must be astronomical!

    • nosehat

      That depends on how well the data is packaged and tagged by the client on the phone.  The company has said in its own defense:

      “Our technology is not real time,” he said at the time. “It’s not constantly reporting back. It’s gathering information up and is usually transmitted in small doses.”

      source

      Note of course, this is an absurdly terrible defense.  But it does indicate that they are smart about how they set up their spying operation and how they manage their data.