Checked Banking on Your Smartphone?

Attention Americans! Have a smartphone with AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint? Change every single password that you have and don't do it on your phone!

DemocracyNow.org reports the following (with emphasis added):

The Federal Trade Commission launched the probe following the disclosure smartphones with Carrier IQ software captured every keystroke and text message and sent the data to the user’s cell phone provider. Three of the four major cellular providers — AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint — say they use Carrier IQ software. Apple says its Carrier IQ will be removed in future software updates. Meanwhile, Carrier IQ is also engulfed in another controversy over its suspected ties to law enforcement surveillance. The controversy erupted after the FBI denied a journalist’s Freedom of Information Act request for documents on data analysis that were gathered with Carrier IQ software. The FBI confirmed it has pertinent information, but denied to release it on the grounds it falls under "law enforcement records." The FBI so far has refused to deny whether it is using Carrier IQ for surveillance activities.

That the companies involved would take advantage of such software to spy on their customers is not even remotely surprising. The most valuable information any company can have is information on what you do. They want to know who your friends are (to market to them), where you spend your money (to compete or profit through advertising), what interests you (to offer you products and services you're more likely to be interested in acquiring), etc.

That it was probably legal for them to do so is sadly not surprising either. Fine. I'll admit it. I didn't read the Terms of Service. >.< Don't even think about it, HUMANCENTiPAD. (Sorry for the caps, I didn't make up the name.)

What's even more disturbing is that the FBI then apparently acquired this information from these companies. Thanks to Dubya, the FBI doesn't need to actually collect evidence, make a case against you and get a judge to issue a subpoena in order to obtain documents about you. They just need to write a letter. It's called a "national-security" letter. They just need to say that they need whatever they want to know for the purpose of national security. Even when it's not.

The New York Times reported on April 15, 2007:

In March, a report by the inspector general of the Justice Department described "widespread and serious misuse" of national-security letters after the U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001 significantly expanded the F.B.I.'s authority to issue them: between 2003 and 2005, he concluded, the F.B.I. issued more than 140,000 national-security letters, many involving people with no obvious connections to terrorism.

So here's the $64k question: Are you more disturbed with your private information, passwords, love letters, naked pictures and friends' phone numbers residing in a database of a private computer company where Ricky the pimple-faced freshman works or are you more disturbed having all of it in the hands of the FBI on a whim?