Carrier IQ Privacy Concerns Reflects Mobile Marketing Business Model--Behavior+Location Tracking

Sen Al Franken (D-Mn) sent a letter today to Carrier IQ "that has apparently been installed on millions of smartphones and that logs and may transmit sensitive information – including users’ locations, the websites they visit, and the contents of their text messages and online searches – to explain exactly what the software records, whether it is transmitted to Carrier IQ or any third party, and whether the data is protected against security threats that could risk the safety and privacy of American consumers."
Carrier IQ's approach models the mobile marketing business model my CDD and USPIRG have long been concerned about (and filed a complaint at the FTC two years ago raising such issues).  Take a look at Carrier IQ's business model, via its "Experience Manager" [datasheet and Franken letter attached].  This illustrates why we need, as Marc Rotenberg aptly pointed out earlier this week, baseline federal privacy legislation.  The growth of what is now being called SoLoMo (social, mobile and location) requires the enactment of consumer privacy safeguards by Congress.  Here's an excerpt from Carrier IQ's data sheet:
"Boost Revenues with Improved Mobile Customer Experience IQ Insight Experience Manager provides a level of visibility into true customer experience, previously
unavailable in the mobile industry. Based on Carrier IQ’s leading Mobile Service Intelligence technology, IQ Insight Experience Manager uses data directly from the mobile phone itself to give a precise view of how users interact with both their phones and the services delivered through them, even if the phone is not communicating with the network...Traditional techniques such as focus groups have two majordrawbacks: they are slow and they only sample a very small proportion of the user base. IQ Insight Experience Managertakes customer experience profiling to another level, enabling you to view experience data at any level of granularityfrom the entire population, to comparative groups, down to individual users, all at the touch of a button...With IQ Insight Experience Manager, it is possible to receive data from thousands to millions of users across your entire user base. Combined with Carrier IQ’s unique Mobile Service Intelligence Platform and advanced analytic applications, this vast collection of data is accessible in easy-to-understand reports, cross correlations and views that put you in control."