Warning: If You Have T-Mobile, You Need to Do This Right Now
T-Mobile has faced numerous data breaches and cybersecurity incidents in recent years. But it seems the troubles don't stop there. Now, its updated privacy settings have forced users to opt in for data collection that could pose serious risks to their data and accounts, with even some of its customers potentially unaware. Here's what these changes are and why you should disable them.
The US major telco has been in the hot seat recently. Last month, a finding alleged that the personal information of 64 million users had been accessed and stolen by a group of hackers. And just a short while later, the company is now facing scrutiny over user privacy concerns.
What Are These New T-Mobile Privacy Toggles?
As spotted (via The Mobile Report), T-Mobile reportedly silently updated its privacy policy in the "Privacy Center" by adding two toggles that automatically opt-in unsuspecting customers. Even so, few details have been provided about the updated policy and what these changes truly entail.
Accordingly, these two added toggles are for "Sharing certain financial information" and "Fraud and identity theft protection." Of the two, the first is considered to pose a greater privacy and security nightmare due to its association with customers' financial data.
The updated page states that if this toggle is enabled, it means you give consent to T-Mobile to share your personal financial information, such as payment history and balances, with financial companies, affiliates, and non-affiliates for marketing purposes. This sounds like an outright sale of your information to other companies.
This specific toggle applies to users with postpaid plans, those applying for one, and those with device financing. In these cases, your data could already be vulnerable even if you don't have an account yet.
Likewise, the second toggle for fraud detection grants T-Mobile access to and use of your personal data, like account and device information, texting and calling patterns, and interactions with websites or URLs, for detecting signs of fraud or identity checks. This tracking will also create indicators that T-Mobile and its affiliated companies can utilize for continuous security protection.
Compared to the first toggle, this one has a more noble cause. However, it still reveals that your messaging and calling activities are accessible to them.
How to Turn Off These T-Mobile Privacy Toggles and Protect Your Data
With T-Mobile on a streak of mishandling hacks and user data, trusting them further appears to be a risky move.
Currently, the updated privacy settings apply to both postpaid and prepaid T-Mobile accounts. If you want to turn off these toggles, you can do so separately for each account. Regardless, the core process should be similar. Here's how:
Steps to Disable T-Mobile Privacy Toggles:
- Log in to your account on T-mobile.com (or use the T-Life app).
- Tap Profile on the upper menu.
- Tap Privacy and select Privacy Dashboard.
- Scroll down and look for the "Sharing certain financial information" toggle and switch it off.
- Alternatively, look for the "Fraud and identity theft protection" toggle and switch it off.
Are you on T-Mobile? Do you plan to disable these new Privacy Center toggles? We want to hear your plans.
Source: TMO
