Well, I suppose this was inevitable: the FBI, via a Freedom of Information Act request denial, inadvertently admitted to using Carrier IQ data. That’s data about you, sucked off of your phone, without your knowledge.
The government transparency wranglers at MuckRock filed for a FOIA release on the FBI’s use of Carrier IQ, and by saying no, they almost said it all:
The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure…
That is to say, we have documents detailing our work with Carrier IQ, but we’re not going to tell you about it. MuckRock’s original request was for “manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyse data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ” — and these are the documents the FBI admitted to having. Whether this is an absolute admission of spying, or rather an investigation of Carrier IQ, isn’t exactly clear. But the “access or analyze” language points to the former. MuckRock is appealing its FOIA case. We’ll see what turns up next. [MuckRock via BoingBoing]