T-Mobile Tracking Glitch Exposed Real-Time Location Of Children To Strangers
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A T-Mobile glitch caused some users to see the names, photos, and real-time locations of random children instead of their own.
- A similar bug affected the company’s car tracking service, showing other people’s vehicles and data.
- T-Mobile says the issue stemmed from a system update and has now been fully resolved.
Tech updates don’t always go smoothly, but most bugs are usually nothing more than a mild inconvenience. However, a T-Mobile glitch this week went way beyond that territory, becoming outright dangerous. Some customers trying to check on their kids’ whereabouts were instead shown the names, pictures, and real-time locations of other people’s children across the country.
The issue affected users of the T-Mobile SyncUP KIDS tracking service, which is marketed as a way for parents to monitor young children who don’t yet have smartphones. One user, speaking to 404 Media, said she was unable to locate her own children but was instead shown profiles of multiple unfamiliar kids, including their school locations and photos that clearly showed they were minors.
“I would log in and I couldn’t see my children but I could see a kid in California,” the parent told the publication, adding that refreshing the app would display new random children. The user provided screenshots showing the exposed data, which reportedly included names, last-updated timestamps, and precise street-level locations.
Users also reported being shown other people’s car data.
The problem wasn’t limited to children’s devices. Some T-Mobile customers using the separate SyncUP DRIVE service — intended for tracking vehicle locations — also reported being shown other people’s car data. Posts on Reddit described users seeing random vehicles appear in their accounts, complete with license plate numbers and VINs.
On X, user harleyqgaming said on Tuesday they were “getting locations for kids idk (sic) from different states,” while user PF81831721 complained that neither the old SyncUP app nor its replacement, T Life, were working as expected.
T-Mobile has since acknowledged and apparently fixed the issue. In a statement provided to 404 Media and other outlets, the company said:
“Yesterday we fully resolved a temporary system issue with our SyncUP products that resulted from a planned technology update. We are in the process of understanding potential impacts to a small number of customers and will reach out to any as needed. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
it’s unclear how long the exposure lasted or how many customers were affected. Similar tracking glitches have previously raised alarms about privacy and security risks — especially when tied to services designed to protect children.
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