Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | December 1, 2011, 7:23am PST

Summary: A few taps and your done!

[UPDATE: According to a statement from Apple to AllThingsD, Apple stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5.0 for most devices:

“We stopped supporting Carrier IQ 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.”

However, the iPhone 4 still makes use of Carrier IQ.

When begs the question ... what's collecting all the information on the iPhone? Is this a mechanism developed by Apple for Apple?]

Bit shocked that your iPhone has that Carrier IQ logging feature built into the OS? You can switch it off … in fact, I’ve shown you how to do this before!

Here’s how!

Buried in the Settings menu is an option to choose not to send what Apple calls ‘diagnostic and usage data.’ This option is buried real deep:

Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage

Here’s the screen you’re looking for:

Set this to Don’t Send and you can stop worrying about where your data is going and who’s looking at it.

Note that this feature is only present on handsets running iOS 5.0 or later (so the iPhone 4S and upgraded iPhone 4 and 3GS handsets.

Image credit: Mike_fleming

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Carrier, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

bamzippow 4th Dec

"A few taps and your done!"?

Shouldn't that be "A few taps and yer done!" wink

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

rwherr@... 1st Dec

The diagnostic & usage setting is also there on 3rd/4th gen iPod Touch with iOS5. Should there be concern with those devices?

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Contributr

RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes 1st Dec

@rwherr@... probably not, no carrier involved. Switch it off if worried tho.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

gribittmep 1st Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

ZDNet - the National Enquirer of IT News.

There's no 'rootkit' on the iPhone. Simple diagnostics that is off by default.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Graham Ellison 1st Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes Thank you for the heads up on this Adrian. It's much appreciated.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Slavomeer 3rd Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
this links can help you

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559&postcount=110
http://blog.chpwn.com/post/13572216737?831dd5c8

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

m0o0o0o0o Updated - 1st Dec

@rwherr@... The only data that the Touches I have checked (seven so far) send are crash and low memory reports. You can read the actual reports - they are right under the settings. Oh - and the setting is turned OFF by default. You have to explicitly turn it on.

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What about Android devices?

justthisguyyouknow 1st Dec

Is there a similar method for Android devices?

And, why isn't any company or government stepping up to investigate this massive breach of privacy?

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Contributr

RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes 1st Dec

@justthisguyyouknow Android's messy ... needs rooting ... hopefully will have more info soon

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Graham Ellison 1st Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes So much better outside Apple's "walled garden"! Irony:??

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Geek10 1st Dec

@justthisguyyouknow

Because the government is likely using this data itself. That's why no one is prosecuting the inclusion of this rootkit in the OSs. Apple presents this as "Apple would like your help to improve the quality and performance of its products and services. Your device can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information and send it to Apple for analysis - but only with your explicit consent."

Wish I trusted that withdrawing consent would insure that this information was not collected or shared with anyone. I don't believe that, nor do a number of folks using these devices.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Peter Perry 1st Dec

@justthisguyyouknow Yes you could always shut off the Data Android Sends! Go to a pro Android Forum and they will direct you to the right place.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

nickts 1st Dec

@Peter Perry This is a rootkit, impossible to remove completely unless you rebuild the OS from the source code... Yes, this is VERY nasty. http://androidsecuritytest.com/features/logs-and-services/loggers/carrieriq/carrieriq-part2/

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

m0o0o0o0o Updated - 1st Dec

@justthisguyyouknow Come on. Read the reports. Right under the settings is the actual data that is being sent, organized by report. To say that this is overblown would be an understatement. By the way, in iOS, the setting is OFF by default. YOU have to turn it on.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Graham Ellison 1st Dec

@m0o0o0o0o That's not true I've just checked my iPhone 4 running iOS 5 and it was set to On by default. What was your advice? "Read the reports."? Well read the advice on here and you'll see that this is the case.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

bobiroc 1st Dec

Is this how the Tethering Police know when someone is tethering their iPhone with something like that short-lived tethering app?

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes Updated - 1st Dec

@bobiroc probably not ... they are either using deep packet inspection, or, more likely, just looking at saturation (that is, how fast people are using bandwidth)

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

bobiroc 1st Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Just wondering because I have helped a few people turn this off and noticed in the logs that it shows a tethering session for the few people that have it enabled in their phone plan.

Still sucks they insist on charging extra for that. Your data (limited or not) should be data no matter if you are using the phone directly or if it is being used tethered to another device.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Geek10 1st Dec

@Adrian Kingsley-Hughes I still think that packets are packets. Ultimately users are paying carriers to move packets. I am amazed that tethering police have not seen the light of day in a US class-action court battle.

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Class action against a carrier is difficult.

taylor@... 1st Dec

@bobiroc When you sign a contract with a carrier, you agree to arbitration and give up your right to file a class action. This is why one law firm was encouraging thousands of individuals to file separate small claims court cases once for another matter.

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Is this actually the same software as the Androids, or Apple's diagnostics?

psquared007 Updated - 1st Dec

How did you determine this is Carrier IQ's "root kit"?

[Nevermind, I found the references on Gizmodo to that question, but also found this statement. "Now, references to the same software have been discovered in Apple's iOS. But in this case, it only logs technical data and it's off by default."

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Yes, it is not actually 'root kit' on iOS devices

dderss 1st Dec

@psquared007

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

psquared007 1st Dec

@dderss Thanks. As an iPhone user I'm feeling a little better about this after reading the Gizmodo post. Adrian's headline really got my attention and I'm feeling a tiny bit misled.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Country Kid 1st Dec

There is Not a "Diagnostic & Usage" section under "About" on my iPhone4 from Verizon. So now what?

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Pete "athynz" Athens 1st Dec

How is this considered a "rootkit"? Can you ZDNet bloggers stop with the FUD-laced headlines?

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

sam@... 1st Dec

@Pete "athynz" Athens

Simple.

From Wikipedia: "A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications."

What part of that definition are you of the opinion that CIQ does not meet?

Sam

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It is a rootkit. Watch the video. Read the articels

taylor@... 1st Dec

@Pete "athynz" Athens It's a rootkit because it's installed at the root level of the OS and intercepts everything before it reaches the apps. CIQ logs your text messages before they even reach the messaging app. Your web data is logged before it's https encrypted. That's what rootkits do.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Daveyk01 1st Dec

Apparently it is not a problem with Verizon. My Verizon iPhone does not have it either.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Daveyk01 1st Dec

Apparently it is not a problem with Verizon. My Verizon iPhone does not have it either.

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Apple Default is OFF

macgregor@... 1st Dec

It's off. Unlike Android. It's ON.

More FUD from folks who need clicks. CNET... the Dell of journalism.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Natanael_L 1st Dec

@macgregor@... More FUD from you.
On Android it's only there if the carriers put it there.
Which they usually only do in places like USA, "the land of the free", lol. My phone has never seen a trace of that thing.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

HackerJ 1st Dec

A hammer is more effective, permanent solution. Oh, but then all you "creative" smart-phone using morons with no life wouldn't be able to check your email every 30-seconds, you might miss a message about you BFF is wearing today.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Pete "athynz" Athens 2nd Dec

@HackerJ Excellent suggestion! And by broadening the scope of this suggestion then YOU my wise friend should take a large hammer to your computer then you would not have to read and comment in a forum that deals with smartphones and smartphone users. What a f'ing moron!

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

surge3@... 1st Dec

Can you please tell us how to turn it off on ios4?!?
THANKS.....

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

sduraybito 1st Dec

You guys are funny. You place so much trust in this infratructure that's been around maybe 15 years. One significant bank failure can send us back to the 1950s before you wake up tomorrow.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

JoniFili 1st Dec

I have the my iPhone on "don't send", but still the logs are there, in Diagnostic & usage data", and can not be deleted!!

Most of them report wifi situations.

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Logs are there the same way logs are found on PCs

wackoae 1st Dec

@JoniFili They are troubleshooting logs. Just like PCs keep a log, and computer device will still keep a log of some events in order to have some info that can be used to troubleshoot a problem when it happens.

Logs are normal things on computer devices. What is not common is recording user inputs and private data as alleged by the news about the HTC rootkits.

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

SimeonMac 1st Dec

Anyway to delete the recorded data this CIQ has gathered? Stopping the sharing is great - I want to clear out the data entirely. Is this possible?

Thanks

Sam

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

MrElectrifyer 1st Dec

Could it have been removed or hidden on the 3GS? Cause I don't see it on my 3GS running freed iOS 4.3.3 wink

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Instructions are for iOS 5.

wackoae 1st Dec

@MrElectrifyer nt

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

Afewgoodmen 1st Dec

This information is nice. Thank God it was finally exposed!

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RE: How to disable the Carrier IQ 'rootkit' on your iPhone

rb7632@... 3rd Dec

I see lots of info on disabling this on OS 5.0 but what if you are still running 4.3.3? There is no Diagnostics listing to turn it off.

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@nickts @Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

MichaelWells 3rd Dec

I looked at your link and it was very informative, thank you. I own an LG Revolution and I check my running services and there was nothing like that and there was also nothing out of the ordinary or that I did not know what it was running. Do you think this maybe be more carrier specific? Just wondering.