Ask Tii - Disabling Carrier IQ

On Ep 201 I stated that Carrier IQ software was not on iPhones and iOS devices.  That now turns out not to be an accurate statement.  As such I have had a few people email in asking about Carrier IQ software on the iPhone.  Please note the software from Carrier IQ on the iOS side is greatly different than what is happening on the Android side.  On the Android side it has been shown to record keystrokes and all kinds of private information.  On the iOS side Apple had this to say officially: 

"We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so."

 

 

Kind of like saying on iOS Carrier IQ = Maytag Repairman -   But on Android Carrier IQ = Government from George Orwell's 1984.   

 

Ok that is all nice and stuff - and it is great to see we are talking about two different use cases - but you still might (should) want to make sure it is not active on your iOS device.  Which by default it is not.  And is easy enough to check to confirm it really is turned off for your iOS device.  

 

To Turn off go to the following: 

 

Settings --> General --> About --> (Scroll down) Diagnostics & Usage  --> Make sure "Don't Send" is checked.  

 

If "Automatically Send" was checked - you can tap on "Diagnostic and Usage Data" to see data you have sent in the last week.   

 

Next go to the following: 

 

Settings --> Location Services --> (Scroll to the bottom) System Services --> Diagnostic & Usage (Turn to "OFF")

 

That is all you need to do to make sure you have completely deactivated any remnants of Carrier IQ on your iOS device.