A 25-year-old security researcher, Trevor Eckhart has identified software secretly installed on Android, Nokia or BlackBerry phones, which records keystrokes of the users and also sends information to their carriers.

The Carrier IQ tracks the user experience, records it, and sends it to the service providers so that they can use it in any manner their like. Eckhart identified the software and analyzed it to find out its functions. He was surprised to find that it secretly transmits user information to the carriers.

The maker of the software has said that the software is not designed for secretly reporting for user information to the carriers. The company, Carrier IQ even threatened Eckhart of Connecticut with legal action but moved back at the intervention of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Carrier IQ has now apologized to the researcher.

Eckhart claims that Carrier IQ's software is a "rootkit," that spies on users who are unaware of the software installed on their devices.

Carrier IQ responded by saying in a statement that, "While we look at many aspects of a device's performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools."