We've talked a great deal about the Carrier IQ situation here at CrackBerry. The carrier diagnostic tool has received quite a lot of attention from the press. While Research In Motion has stated in no uncertain terms that it does not install Carrier IQ on its phones; it is nevertheless possible for this software to end up on your BlackBerry. T-Mobile, for example, includes IQ Agent with its My Account application. AT&T revealed that Carrier IQ is included with its Mark the Spot application.

There are no special tools or programs you'll need to remove the agent from a BlackBerry; everything you'll need is already part of the BlackBerry operating system. In this article, we're going to discuss removing a single application module and not the entire application itself. This may have unintended consequences for your BlackBerry, and you may wish to just delete the entire My Account application (or similar, for other carriers) from your Smartphone. 

• Enter application management. Options -> Device -> Application Management. For devices running a BlackBerry OS prior to 6.0, check out this Knowledge Base Article
• Press the menu key (the BlackBerry logo one) and select Modules from the list
• Look for the IQAgent module. In OS 6.0+, you can search for "IQ" or "agent"
• The net_rim_bb_drm_agent is fine and not a part of CarrierIQ -- if that's all you see, then CarrierIQ is not present.
• Highlight the IQAgent module, press the menu key, and choose delete
• You may be prompted to restart your BlackBerry

Be very careful about deleting application modules. If you delete the wrong one, you may end up trashing a perfectly acceptable application or needing to restore a Nuked BlackBerry. If you're up to it, send us some screenshots via Twitter of your Carrier IQ IQAgent being deleted. Mention @CrackBerry and include the hashtag #goodbyeciq

Source: eWeek

As you know, Research In Motion does not include Carrier IQ with its phones. The company does not permit its carrier partners to install CarrierIQ on BlackBerry Smartphones. It does, however, permit you - the end user - to install the carrier monitoring software on your Smartphone. From what we've seen from T-Mobile, Carrier IQ is included with the My Account app that the user can install and give permissions to. AT&T is thought to operate in a similar manner. Even if you allow this software to be installed, is there really anything to be concerned about? Carrier IQ says no. And you know what? I believe them.

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There's a whole wave of Carrier IQ news circulating the interwebs and it comes as no surprise that phone companies and networks will start coming out insisting that they do not install the application on their devices. RIM issued a statement and now we have UK networks stating the same.

Three UK networks, namely Orange, O2 and Vodafone, told the Guardian that,

they do not install the software in the UK and that to the best of their knowledge it is not shipped in any of the phones they sell.

Do you feel safer hearing this news, on top of RIM's reassurance that they don't install Carrier IQ on their smartphones? Sound of in the comments.

Discuss in the forums 

Source: The Guardian, via Android Central

The short answer is probably not; the slightly longer answer is that it could be. Last month, security researcher Trevor Eckhart did a little digging around in his Android Smartphone after seeing some curious data transfers. What he found set off a firestorm of outrage and disbelief. A program installed on the handset by or at the request of major wireless carriers has the ability to track nearly everything a user does on his or her phone.

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This post in the BlackBerry Support Forums by BlackBerry Development Advisor Mark Sohm speaks for itself. In a nut shell, BlackBerry Smartphones do not have monitoring software CarrierIQ pre-installed on them, and wireless carriers are not authorized to add the monitoring program themselves. That's not to say it's impossible for CarrierIQ to be running on a BlackBerry. If a user or a BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrator chooses to install and authorize CarrierIQ on the device, that's certainly well within their rights.

CarrierIQ was one of the hot topics in our CrackBerry Podcast today. In fact, we talked about this very announcement during the show. Replay is on its way soon.  In the meantime, we've included the full text below for your convenience.

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