Google does not work with nor does it support Carrier IQ, the software maker which has been accused of violating millions of mobile phone users' privacy rights, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Thursday.

Carrier IQ makes software that operators including AT&T and Sprint Nextel install in mobile devices. The software transmits data that Carrier IQ says allows mobile operators to better understand their devices and networks.

But it has come under fire following reports that its software collects and transmits potentially sensitive data about phone users.

Google's Android smartphone operating system has been associated with Carrier IQ after a hacking expert released a video on YouTube showing his Android-powered HTC running the software.

Schmidt said: Android is an open platform, so it's possible for people to build software that's actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one.

It's a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes, and we certainly don't work with them and we certainly don't support it, he told an Internet freedom conference in the Dutch city of The Hague.

(Reporting by Roberta Cowan and Georgina Prodhan. Editing Jane Merriman)

Eric E. Schmidt Smartphone Google