Minnesota Senator Al Franken has sent letters to several more companies involved in the Carrier IQ scandal, reports say. Franken is in charge of a Senate privacy panel, and has issued new requests to AT&T, HTC, Samsung, and Sprint, in addition to one sent earlier to Carrier IQ itself. The new parties are being asked to explain how they’re using the Carrier IQ technology, and what data they’re gathering through it.
In all cases the letter recipients are expected to respond by December 14th, although there’s no legal penalty involved for failing to do so. The companies may be more concerned with a series of civil lawsuits accusing them of violating laws like the Federal Wiretap Act and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It is, however, considered common for companies to reply to requests like Sen. Franken’s.
