I get the feeling Dan Hesse is one of the rare CEOs that has empathy for customers. Sprint used to have the worst customers service, and now it is actually pretty good. An action like this probably increases Sprint's legal liability for CIQ, but it is the best thing for customers. He probably made the executive decision against the advice of corporate council.
I used to work for Sprint. I never got that Dan Hesse had strong empathy for customers, but that he knew that good customer service was going to be good for investors in the medium run.
The guidance in engineering was always to make sure customer experience wasn't bad, but the framing wasn't "think of the poor consumer!" - instead it was "we absolutely must reduce churn or die."
I was glad he was CEO and still impressed that he's stuck with it.
"Sprint waited until there were lawsuits to start removing Carrier IQ from their network, where previously they had been defending their use of the mobile intelligence service. This could possibly even be seen as an admission of guilt, as them removing the software in an attempt to make amends for what they have been caught doing."
While I am sure that Hesse is a good person, there is no evidence that "empathy for customers" was behind this decision.
You are reading the news, I am trying to read between the lines. My assumption is that the in house council is saying the same thing the reporters are, and that the CEO is saying, "fuckit, let's do what is best for customers".
I could be completely wrong, but given that Sprint unfucked their customer service during Hesse's tenure, I speculate that he is actually a decent guy. I am obviously massively over extrapolating my own personal experience.
Having written this comment, I now realize how ridiculous my initial comment was. I based an opinion on the integrity of a company and its chief executive only on a CSR experience. You are absolutely right, I have no real basis for my opinion. --Though I did just buy some sprint stock... sometimes you have to go with your gut :)
If you are really reading between the lines, realize that he is not doing what is best for customers, but what is best for his business. In this case he is serving both, but his motivations lie with the latter.
Carrier IQ is getting a bad rap, so removing it shines a positive light on Sprint. However, if it was installed on their phones they have obviously known about it (and its nature) for some time. Why did they wait until now to remove it?
They'll just replace it with some other software from some other company that does pretty much the same thing.
The bigger issue is how the heck this software -- dare I say malware? -- has infected just about every mobile device in the first place. There is some sort of institutional or cultural entitlement the carriers have on spying on their users. I think only legislation can really fix that, but given how much law enforcement relies on this kind of surveillance, I doubt that will ever happen.
FTA: "each of the OEM’s has been asked to quickly release binaries that do not contain Carrier IQ so that over-the-air updates can be pushed to those devices as quickly as possible. The eventual plan is to remove Carrier IQ from all of the devices on Sprint’s network."
