So what is Carrier IQ? And why you should care

Quite simply Carrier IQ is software that some Wireless Carriers install on your phone that has the ability to track EVERYTHING you do.  Every call, text and even button you push.  The privacy implications are extraordinary, so you should care.  Computerworld provides a more in depth explanation of Carrier IQ here.

In November, Trevor Eckhart, a 25-year-old security researcher from Connecticut published details of research he had done showing how Carrier IQ software can be easily tweaked to conduct surreptitious and highly intrusive tracking of Android, BlackBerry and other smartphone users.

Eckhart described the software as a keystroke logging rootkit that is hard-to-detect, hard-to-remove and programmed to run by default on millions of handsets without the users' knowledge.

In addition to collecting device and service related data, Carrier IQ's software can collect data about a user's location, application use, Web browsing habits, videos watched, texts read and even the keys they press, according to Eckhart. The software runs when the phone is switched on and can log all activities till it is switched off. Carriers can set 'triggers' or actions that cause specific data to be logged and sent to them.