Suspicious false pretense reporting and Carrier IQ (The Cellphone Spy)

On November 28th, 2011, an Android developer by the name of Trevor Eckhart posted a video on YouTube detailing his discovery of a Cellphone software application that basically spies on the owner of the phone. It does so in the background and is very difficult to disable and/or remove. I first heard about this story through AboveTopSecret but by December 1st it appears the Mainstream Media is already reporting on it.

Question: Why is the mainstream media heavily reporting something like this and so quickly, given that it is relatively new and seems to have spawned from just one 17 minute video on YouTube? (Remember how long it took them to cover Occupy Wall Street?)

Also, keep in mind that business insurance equation from Fight Club. If a major corporation can make more money by exploiting customers, and it can get away with it, that corporation will exploit them.

CNN: Carrier IQ: Your phone's secret recording device - December 1st, 6:28PM
money.cnn.com...

FoxNews: Carrier IQ: Spyware or Handy Tool? What You Need to Know - December 1st
www.foxnews.com...

Rueters: RIM, Nokia deny use of Carrier IQ software - December 1st
www.reuters.com...

Bloomberg: AT&T, Sprint Defend Their Use of Carrier IQ Tracking Software - December 1st
www.bloomberg.com...

Wall Street Journal: Tracking-Software Maker Stirs Phone-Privacy Fears - December 2nd
online.wsj.com...

New York Times: Programmer Raises Concerns About Phone-Monitoring Software - December 1st
bits.blogs.nytimes.com...

Wired: Critics Line Up to Bash Maker of Secret Phone-Monitoring Software - December 1st
www.wired.com...

Los Angeles Times: Carrier IQ disputes spying accusations; security researchers agree - December 1st
latimesblogs.latimes.com...

MSNBC: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile use Carrier IQ, but don't collect personal info - December 1st
technolog.msnbc.msn.com...

And yes even Infowars: Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps - November 30th
But Alex covered it a day before.


Everybody knows these corporations exist to make a profit and they don't really care about truth in journalism (except of course when it involves them being able to make more money). So what is everyone's thoughts? Did Carrier IQ not pay them enough money to keep their mouths shut? Is the Mainstream Media trying to make Americans more anxious towards a heightened surveillance state? What is the real goal here?

Good thread because I was thinking the same thing. In fact, just as I was reading your thread, the story came on CNN about the Carrier IQ software.

As for why the media is piping about it... I think it is just the typical news cycle:
1. Find something as many viewers as possible can relate to: Cell phones, most of us have one.
2. Report on something about that topic that provokes an emotional response: Your phone is spying on you! (Paranoia, Fear, Confusion)
3. Reap the benefits: Adverti$ing

Quite frankly, anybody who knows about smartphone forensics knows that they collect all of this data - and more. I suppose the question is does this Carrier IQ collect data for performance tuning and future development enhancements or is it an application that was covertly developed by certain intelligence agencies? Well, I doubt we will ever know if it is the latter of the two.

I'm going to take a wild stab at it and say that the establishment is trying to focus our attention on something expendable to them. They're giving the peasants something to burn in the town square and make it seem like corporate news is still hot on the topics and looking out for you and I.

"They" have been keeping track of "us" for a long time now.

Big Brother, Big Business

Top Secret America: Local agencies help collect data on Americans

By Dana Priest and William M. Arkin
The Washington Post
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators. The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing. The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.

www.denverpost.com...

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

www.usatoday.com...