Sprint says it has disabled Carrier IQ on its devices

Sprint may have stood by its use of Carrier IQ on its smartphones when the furor over the software erupted a couple of weeks back -- while insisting all along that it was only used for network diagnostic purposes -- but it's now apparently had a change of heart. In a statement to Mobile Burn, Sprint says that it has "weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," adding that it's now "further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint's diagnostic needs." The carrier also reasserted that it has never used the software to examine users' personal information, and that it hasn't been used for targeted advertising or profiling customers. As Mobile Burn notes, however, while the software has been "disabled," it's not yet clear if that means it will actually be removed with a future software update, or not installed on new handsets.