Wow, this is going to be huge.
Nasty stuff. This is why I like phones that use less well known operating systems, like WebOS. Malware writers/tracking companies, etc... don't bother because not enough people use them.
Also, Slevin, if you read the update to the article, it is installed on iPhones, but is disabled by default, however, there is nothing to stop the carriers from activating it.
This kind of crap is just going to become more and more common as smartphones become increasingly powerful. This wasn't possible with lower powered or less intelligent phones because the impact on performance would be noticeable, but with laptop class processors and graphics accelerators in phones these little programs can snoop in the background without using any significant resources.
This is why everything that is a general purpose device with access to the Internet should have a 3rd party firewall that reports/logs any and all traffic, including anything that is part of the OS. Then people would be able to see what on their device is active, when it is active, and with whom it is communicating.
On my laptop I'm always amazed at what programs, including parts of the OS, are trying to phone home for one reason or another.
thumbdown
