Senators are by no means tech experts, either.
While I agree with the general consensus of "leave me and my data alone" it seems to me the public hysteria around Carrier IQ is targeting the wrong entity.
According to the various links, there are certain information that can be captured and sent maliciously under certain circumstances. Otherwise this information I imagine was originally intended for the carriers.
I like Dailytech's analogy to the IT setting - At work, the IT department (most that I know of, anyway) is able to access users' machines and record usage information, usually to prevent abuse. In a similar vein, the carriers should be able to gather some information about the users of its network infrastructure in order to better manage it. However, this does come back to the fact that we're at the mercy of the carrier's intentions here, just as some guy in IT could screw you over.
I think the outrage should be directed more at this practice of monitoring, rather than specifically at Carrier IQ, who's basically become the scapegoat here. Remove CIQ, and the carriers will find a new way to monitor you.
To the OP: Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, I'm not entirely sure how all your financial accounts could be compromised.
From what I've read, the software can only capture keystrokes from within the phone dialer (when you make a phone call.. I don't see anything that affects the keyboards.) Furthermore it can disclose URL's, including any usernames and passwords within it, but all of those sites don't include that information in the URL string, I don't believe.
