Franken Wants Answers on Phone-Tracking Software

The latest phone-tracking controversy has caught the attention of Capitol Hill. Sen. Al Franken has written to Carrier IQ demanding answers on whether its software goes too far in logging the doings of millions of smartphone users, reports the Huffington Post. His move comes after an Android developer raised the alarm about the software, which its maker says is merely a diagnostic tool for carriers, not an evil eavesdropper. (Gizmodo has a list of phones that look to be free of Carrier IQ here.)

"I understand the need to provide usage and diagnostic information to carriers," wrote Franken. "...But it appears that Carrier IQ's software captures a broad swath of extremely sensitive information from users that would appear to have nothing to do with diagnostics—including who they are calling, the contents of the texts they are receiving, the contents of their searches, and the websites they visit." (Read the full letter here.)