AppsGood and EVO

How to confirm your rooted HTC EVO is safe from Carrier IQ

Carrieriq-logo

Carrier IQ has been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason. From misguided legal threats to subsequent apologies, from Senate inquiries to class action lawsuits, the legal team over at CIQ has got to be quite busy. But for end-users like us, we just want to make sure that our HTC EVOs are safe.

However, it's not quite as easy as rooting your EVO and deleting the CIQ system app – doing so will make your phone inoperable, as CIQ has deeply baked their software into HTC Sense and Android.

Custom ROMs made by experienced developers can help. For example, if you're running an AOSP-based ROM like Cyanogen or MIUI, you should be safe. These ROMs have completely removed Sense, leaving behind Google's own CIQ-free code. However, any Sense-based ROM will automatically have bits and pieces of CIQ remaining, even if the developer has, for the most part, disabled the software.

So what is one to do?

Well, lots of security firms have recently come out with Carrier IQ detectors, like Lookout and Bitdefender, for example. But my personal favorite is Voodoo Carrier IQ Detector. Simply put, it's much more accurate than the competition and provides much more details.

For example: I'm currently running the most recent beta of Fresh, version 4.0.6, on my EVO 3D. Flipz has done a great job at disabling CIQ from logging and storing my personal data, but since it's a Sense-based ROM, I know that it's impossible to completely remove CIQ until Sprint and HTC decide to do it themselves (and I'm not holding my breath). Lookout gave me this result:

Lookout-ciq

On the other hand, Voodoo was a bit more accurate:

Voodoo-ciq

Voodoo let me know that there are still pieces of CIQ remaining, but I needn't worry. Additionally, it gave me quite a long and detailed log of everything that it found. Perfect!

Thus, with Voodoo Carrier IQ Detector, I can be confident that the developer of my current ROM has been diligent in protecting my sensitive data from getting logged. So if you're running a Sense-based ROM, or even if you have rooted and tried to strip CIQ from the stock ROM all by yourself, I highly recommend downloading this free app to make sure your data is as secure as you think it is.

Qrc-voodoo-ciq

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John F

John was the editor-in-chief at Pocketables. His articles generally focus on all things Google, including Chrome and Android, although his love of new gadgets and technology doesn't stop there. His current arsenal includes the Nexus 6 by Motorola, the 2013 Nexus 7 by ASUS, the Nexus 9 by HTC, the LG G Watch, and the Chromebook Pixel, among others.

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