T-Mobile’s Child Tracking Devices Expose Locations of Wrong Kids After System Update

• A technical mishap in T-Mobile’s SyncUP tracking system caused a concerning privacy breach.
• The security lapse exposed the locations, names, and even photos of children to users who were not their parents.
• The company said a planned technology update was at fault and that the problem was solved.

Parents relying on GPS-enabled devices to monitor their own children via the T-Mobile SyncUP tracking system saw the locations, names, and even photos of children they did not know instead of their own kids. 

T-Mobile issued a response confirming that the issue stemmed from a planned technology update and assured that the problem had been resolved in a statement to 404 Media.

T-Mobile’s SyncUP devices, which include tags, watches, and car trackers, rely on GPS, Wi-Fi, and the T-Mobile LTE network to provide precise real-time tracking. These tools are often employed by parents to monitor young children without cell phones or by car owners to track vehicles. 

However, after a recent system update, multiple users found themselves viewing entirely incorrect data. Parents reported seeing information about random children in entirely different parts of the country instead of their intended trackers.

Instead of displaying their child’s location, some parents were shown the whereabouts and photos of unfamiliar children. One parent reported seeing up to eight different children’s information while refreshing the app multiple times but couldn’t see their own kids.

Car-tracker users also experienced similar complications, revealing significant concerns about the system’s reliability and privacy protocols.

Mismanagement of personal data can lead to violations of privacy laws such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), which mandate strict controls over data sharing.  

Similar incidents have been reported in stalkerware apps, which allow unauthorized individuals to monitor targets. While T-Mobile’s devices are considered more secure than many low-quality trackers, no system is impervious to failure.