This video details Carrier IQ, which just broke as a rootkit on many Android phones that are essentially now useless because they’re nothing more than spies.
Carrier IQ is deep in many phone systems, has no opt-out, and sits between your phone and any software you use on it, thus getting around any opt-outs or privacy controls you may have implemented. This means your passwords, your text messages, your emails, your call history, and your location has been tracked and sent over the Internet in plaintext.
Gizmodo has a list of likely “safe” phones (Verizon users are apparently safe, and Nokia users as well), but if you can wipe your phone and install a custom ROM, do it.
We’re seriously stunned that such a flagrant, and stupid, violation of privacy has been carried out with the apparent consent of what seems to be an enormous portion of the mobile industry with both handset makers and carriers agreeing to use this software. We’ll have more as this unfolds.