T-Mobile Might Be Recording Your Phone’s Screen: Here’s How to Check

T-Mobile Might Be Recording Your Phone’s Screen: Here’s How to Check

T-Mobile customers have noticed a concerning new setting in the T-Life app, which appears to give the “un-carrier” the ability to record your phone’s screen.

T-Mobile May Be Watching Your Phone’s Screen

Of course, the caveat here is that the recording likely only affects the time that you’re using the T-Life app, which T-Mobile uses to offer customers special deals. It has also replaced T-Mobile’s previous mobile app, which you could use to pay your bill and manage your account.

As such, it’s likely that T-Mobile customers will need to access T-Life at some point. And, if you do, you could be putting anything you do in the app at risk—including when you enter information like credit card numbers and bank account information.

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Posts on an unofficial T-Mobile subreddit were the first to report the new screen recording setting on an iPhone. Since then, the comments have expanded to showcase that the setting is appearing on multiple other types of phones, including both iPhone and Android devices.

Of course, T-Mobile says that the new recording setting is only there to help gather information about how customers use the app. However, customers started noticing the setting without any official announcement or word from T-Mobile that it existed.

And that’s part of the biggest concern here. Sure, recording what we do in an app isn’t exactly new. Many apps record information about how we use them in one way or another. However, with the ongoing rise of cybersecurity risks online, T-Mobile’s push for this new setting without telling its customers is a major red flag.

How to Stop T-Mobile From Recording Your Screen

Luckily, you have the option to toggle the new recording setting off. To do so, all you need to do is open the T-Life app and navigate to Manage in the bottom right. From there, tap on the Settings icon in the top right (it looks like a gear) and look for Screen recording tool under Preferences.

With the feature turned off, T-Mobile will no longer record your screen when you’re using T-Life.

Considering we’ve seen Microsoft continue to push Recall out to Windows, it isn’t that surprising to see T-Mobile try something similar in its mobile app. Ultimately, wanting to learn more about how consumers use the app isn’t a bad thing.

However, the way T-Mobile has handled the launch of this setting is definitely concerning. Add to that the concerns about how that data might be hacked in the future—given T-Mobile’s storied history with data leaks and hacks—and this is a recipe for disaster.

The setting doesn’t appear to have rolled out to every device with the T-Life app installed. Even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app, I wasn’t able to get it to show on any of my devices. However, it seems to appear randomly, as I restarted the app before publishing this piece and was able to see the option. I recommend checking your app often and turning the feature off if you find it.

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