This is exactly right. It is the presence of a keylogger, which (at the very least) is echoing keystrokes, that is the problem. Whether they 'send' everything or only parts of it, or whether the data is anonymized, aggregated etc is a whole other discussion.

This is, of course, an attitude that is going to "deftly" shoot down any new fact or analysis brought into the discussion.

Your starting point was that they were collecting† data that could jeopardize national security††. You clearly based that argument on the idea that their own recruiter mentioned "10s of gigabytes a day".

Now, in true message board geek fashion, you're going to steadily move the goalposts. What? They're not collecting messages? Well then they're processing messages! They shouldn't be doing that either!

The problem with this tactic --- make a spectacularly unsupported assertion and then back off it in a series of non-concession-concessions --- is that you cease to be credible. Is this what you really think? Or will you re-harden your position if e.g. it becomes clear that they're not even seeing the keycodes of the keypresses, but rather using an API that could conceivably allow them to get them.

† Your word.

†† Ibid.

He's based his argument on the recruiter's statement, which is a poor choice. On the other hand, other material from the company supports, in fact, a much larger number.

I don't think there's any goalpost moving here at all: Hundreds of millions of keyloggers -- rootkits, really, as the article states -- are installed and unremovable. Whether they are being abused or not at the moment is irrelevant; it should be outrageous and unacceptable that such a datastream is going through a third-party without any kind of transparency, acceptance, or even tacit acknowledgement.

Likewise, your rhetorical refutation here (very thorough, in the abstract) would be a lot more damning if there wasn't, you know, video evidence of this rootkit collecting exactly this data and sending it back.

Here's a thread full of you vehemently defending/rationalizing police state -like behaviour: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2802917

Now you're defending/rationalizing whatever disgusting bullshit Carrier IQ is up to.

What's wrong with you?

Just like we didn't have absolute proof that Aaron's indictment was politically motivated, we can't be absolutely sure that Carrier IQ is a company full of shit and devoid of morals.

But it's blindingly obvious that both are very, very likely.

In case you're just blissfully unaware of how full of shit the world actually is, here's a report on your justice system fraudulently, systematically signing away people's homes: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-courts...

Government contracts can have that effect.

I wouldn't know. But the idea that you can't even fathom how someone might have a different point of view from you and not be bought off by the government is telling.

I actually concur with your arguments. But I guess you're hell bent on making an ass of you and me.