After that long disaster of Carrier IQ in late 2011, HTC has decided to remove Carrier IQ from their CDMA phones starting this month. Last week HTC rolled out a maintenance update to the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint which removed Carrier IQ from those devices, which Sprint said they turned off the switch on Carrier IQ during the big scandal late last year. HTC is starting with their CDMA models in removing the Carrier IQ service, Verizon customer need not worry since Carrier IQ is not on Verizon devices.

According to an HTC representative, updates will begin this month for Sprint devices, though specific models and timeframes were not mentioned. Since the HTC EVO 3D has already been updated to remove Carrier IQ, who can we expect to be next? All of the relevant phones will have a security update, which may include various other bugfixes as well. All told, 26 million CDMA customers (including HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Palm and other manufacturers) are affected by Carrier IQ, though the wireless provider says that it has ceased using the software’s functions.

Carrier IQ almost certainly isn’t intended to be used as spyware. Its primary function is technical logging that helps carriers hunt down bugs and improve their networks. But the wide range of access that the software has, including visited websites, call logs, location and other data. Carrier IQ didn’t help matters when it threatened legal action against a security researcher who exposed the software’s potential breaches.

So make sure you apply any update that comes to your device so you can get rid of Carrier IQ once and for all!