T-Mobile’s SyncUP GPS tracker reportedly “glitched” this week, and instead of allowing parents to see their children wearing a device powered by the service, started showing them other children, located around the US.
404 Media is reporting that it received screenshots from one affected user of SyncUP – a parent who instead of being able to track their own, suddenly had access to other kids’ photos, names, “address-level location,” as well as location update information down to, “one minute ago” and, “just now.”
Those children were in various states, and the parents said that each time they would log out of the SyncUP app, and then log in again in the hope that might fix the issue – information about a different random child would appear. In the case of the parent cited in the article, this happened no less than eight times.
The publication does not specify which of the many SyncUP products and services is in question, but given that it is described as “a small GPS tracker for parents (…) which they can use to track the locations of young children who don’t have cell phones yet” – it appears to be a reference to T-Mobile’s SyncUP KIDS Watch.
This is a smartwatch worn by children that allows for direct communication between them and parents or guardians, without the use of a phone.
Even though the problem was related to children’s privacy and potential safety, the parent cited under the pseudonym Jenna, found T-Mobile support’s response lacking.
“Nobody took me seriously there,” Jenna said and also revealed that despite filing a ticket and following up with an email, they never received any information about the incident from the telecommunications giant.
In a statement for 404 Media made after the original version of the article was published, T-Mobile crisis communications manager Bennet Ladyman said that the April 1 issue stemmed from “a planned technology update” and had in the meantime been fully fixed.
Ladyman also said that “a small number of customers” were affected, while the company was “in the process of understanding potential impact” and would get in touch with those customers, “as needed.”
The statement mentions that the problem concerned “SyncUP products,” plural – and according to user testimonies posted on social media, another affected service was the car-tracking SyncUP Drive.
“Every time I open the app, I get a different person’s vehicle (location),” one Reddit user wrote.
