Why Both You And Carrier IQ Are Pawns In The Fight For Mobile Data

There is no question that we love our mobile devices. There’s also no question that we are paranoid about how much of ourselves we pour into the most personal computers ever created, which is why that even if some of the initial concerns were overblown, this week’s flap over the Carrier IQ software shows that the mobile industry still hasn’t learned its lessons about honesty, disclosure, and respect for its users and that those users still don’t understand that their mobile experience is controlled by data-hungry corporations.

There is only one way to operate a mobile business in a paranoid age: full and complete disclosure written in plain language as to what data is being collected along with clear options for how to control the data your customers share. Installing clandestine software on devices that rarely leave one’s person is simply not a long-term strategy for building trust, especially for a carrier like Sprint that needs every customer it can get. (Verizon gleefully pointed out this week that it has never used Carrier IQ, and people expect this sort of underhanded thing from AT&T.) It’s not hard to feel like a pawn of big business in the 21st century. Mobile computers have the potential to unlock so much human potential by giving us access to the world’s information nearly anywhere we go, but more and more people are starting to wonder about the cost of having access to that information. After all, you don’t really own a smartphone in the U.S.: you’re essentially leasing a subsided device based on the promise that you’ll pay back the acquisition cost over a two-year period. One day component costs will come down to the point where someone can make money selling a capable low-cost smartphone that doesn’t require a two-year contract and a data-mining operation to make money. Those days are not here yet. And if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product. It’s a little scary to imagine what the modern-day Internet would be like had we all been forced to buy subsidized PCs from Internet service providers.