Let’s take a trip all the way back to 2011. The mobile world was swept up into a controversy around a company called Carrier IQ. The company provided diagnostic information from smartphones to wireless carriers. It was first discovered on phones by XDA Recognized Developer TrevE (who later was nearly sued by Carrier IQ).
In short, the Carrier IQ software was given root-like permissions over the device, which means it could record everything from keystrokes to phone calls. It was also nearly invisible to the even a skilled developer and very difficult to remove. XDA was on top of this story from day 1. We even partnered with the EFF to reverse engineer Carrier IQ. So I highly recommend looking back through the archive.
The main problem with Carrier IQ was users had no idea this was happening on their phones. It was seen as a privacy breach, which led many to seek suit against Carrier IQ. Among those included the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Sprint, and T-Mobile. After many years, settlements from the class action lawsuit are finally being distributed.
If you purchased, owned, or were an Authorized User of a mobile device made by HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Pantech, or Samsung, with service on AT&T, Cricket, Sprint, or T-Mobile, that was equipped with Carrier IQ software at the time of sale, you could get a payment* from a class action settlement.
The deadline for filing a claim was back in 2016. Qualifying mobile devices were purchased/owned between December 1st, 2007 and March 1st, 2016. You can see the long list of affected models here. The payout amount was decided by the number of claims that were submitted. Payments started going out on October 1st for $139.31 per device. So, if you remember filing a claim several years ago, check your inbox for a check. You may have a nice surprise waiting for you.
Source: Carrier IQ Settlement
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