COMMENTARY | Last week I saw Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, give a keynote address in which he championed today's revolutionary transparency between consumers and businesses, he referred to a Corporate Spring, the need for "companies to embrace social media or be affected by it."
Just as Benioff spoke about social media's power to connect with consumers, mobile intelligence company Carrier IQ became the latest example of what can happen when a company fails to connect: watch your product become the subject of a viral video that sparks questions from Minnesota Sen. Al Franken.
In developer Trevor Eckhart's YouTube hit, Carrier IQ Part No. 2 the public gets its first peek of Carrier IQ's preinstalled application running on his HTC EVO 3D from Sprint. It appears to log his every keystroke without his permission.
According to the CIQ website, the same software runs on millions of phones -- without users' knowledge or consent. The effect? A resounding thumbs down. In mid-November Carrier IQ was forced to withdraw its copyright infringement claims in a his research.
"Given that there is no basis for your legal claims," they said in a letter to Carrier IQ, "we must conclude that your threats are motivated by a desire to suppress Mr. Eckhart's research conclusions, and to prevent others from verifying those conclusions."
"In retrospect," Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenheart said in a faxed apology, "we realize that we would have been better served by reaching out to Mr. Eckhart to establish a dialogue in the first instance."
Since then Carrier IQ hasn't only racked up a 1-star rating on Google. Class action lawsuits, two of which also name phone makers HTC and Samsung have been filed against the Silicon Valley startup in at least four U.S. cities. By Friday, Massachusetts Rep. Edward J. Marckey fired off a letter asking the FTC about its plans to investigate possible "unfair or deceptive acts or practices."
Lenheart tries clarifying what Carrier IQ does in an awkward company video saying, "The technology is not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools ... our technology is your advocate. Because operators and handset manufacturers are for the first time getting a true understanding of your day to day problems."
Innovative customer service platforms that aim to offer a better user experience can be creative enough without breaking the law. Whatever the courts decide, Carrier IQ along with the carriers who hired them didn't give consumers what they value: the courtesy of letting them know what services are running on their mobile devices at least, protection of their privacy at the most.
Quietly embedding software into smartphones that's hard to locate and remove, that potentially foreshadows, logs and transmits users activity including encrypted files may not only be against the law, it's no way make friends or treat your customers in this day and age. Companies with IQ in their name should be expected to know this.
lionfish conjoined twins justin bieber paternity justin bieber paternity denver news kym johnson how old is justin bieber
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.