T-Mobile users should update settings if they don’t want sensitive info to be shared with other firms

T-Mobile has added two privacy toggles to settings and they may rub some users the wrong way.

T-Mobile‘s “Privacy Center” now features new toggles that are turned on by default, per The Mobile Report. The first is called “Fraud and identity theft protection,” and it uses your information to prevent fraud. The company explains that it uses your data, such as account information and activity, communication patterns, and interactions with sketchy URLs, to detect fraudulent activity. It shares those indicators of fraud with other companies you have accounts with to stop unauthorised transactions from going through.

 

One example given by T-Mobile is when your bank might inquire about any changes to your contact information to help flag fraudulent transactions.

It’s hard to come up with other use cases for this toggle beyond anything involving payments, but all things considered, it doesn’t look like having this toggle enabled will put you at risk. The other toggle is a bit worrying, though. It’s called “Sharing certain financial information,” and if it’s turned on, it will permit T-Mobile to share any financial data it has on you, including payment history and account balance, with other companies for marketing and business purposes.

Financial information is among the most sensitive types of data, and it can be misused to profile you or impersonate you, among other things. That’s why, most people won’t want T-Mobile to share this information with other companiesIf you want to turn these toggles off, launch the T-Life app, navigate to the Manage tab, tap the gear icon at the top right, and select “Privacy & policies”. After that, go to “Privacy dashboard”. Alternatively, you can visit the Privacy Center on T-Mobile‘s website.

You’ll have to select the brand you use and sign in if you haven’t already.

You will then be directed to the main dashboard, which will have most of the opt-out toggles.

You will have to turn off each toggle individually and for every line on your account. While you are tinkering with these settings, you might also want to check out the “Manage Do Not Sell or Share” and “Update marketing preferences” buttons to make sure everything is set to your liking.

While T-Mobile might have introduced the new settings to improve the user experience, they should have been opt-in by default. Even though it’s commendable that the process to disable the toggles is pretty straightforward, T-Mobile should let users decide if they want to enable them.