(Image source: Carrier IQ)

BY NEWSY STAFF

Your smartphone might be a little too smart. Like -- tracking your every move -- smart.

Android developer Trevor Eckhart released this video demonstrating that Carrier IQ, a piece of pre-installed software on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, can track your every keystroke.

“5, 53 and so on and so forth. So every button that you press before you even call it already gets sent off to the IQ application here and has a unique keypress for everything that we press down.”

This video follows previous research Eckhart has released on the topic. And it appears to contradict a statement Carrier IQ just released on November 16th, which read...

“While we look at many aspects of a device’s performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools.”

Since the initial research and CarrierIQ reaction, MSNBC reports...

“The matter has grown so contentious that the company, Carrier IQ, threatened researcher Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut with legal action, but then backed off and apologized after the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently intervened.”

Whether the software is actually recording keystrokes and text messages, Mashable’s Stan Schroeder says -- the fact that users didn’t okay any of this is pretty larming.

“It’s also present on iOS devices, but it seems to be active only when the device is in diagnostic mode. While this doesn’t prove that Carrier IQ is actually sending the data back to Carrier IQ’s servers, it’s definitely disconcerting to see all this done by an app which is completely out of users’ control.”

And Wired says -- once you have a device with the tracking system -- good luck getting rid of it.

“By the way, it cannot be turned off without rooting the phone and replacing the operating system. And even if you stop paying for wireless service from your carrier and decide to just use Wi-Fi, your device still reports to Carrier IQ.”

CarrierIQ’s statement says all information is stored either with cell networks or on “customer-approved” facilities.