T-Mobile Offered To Forward Your Number To A Random Stranger’s Device Today
Today, T-Mobile announced a new feature that’s useful for users with multiple devices and multiple phone numbers: Digits, which lets customers link their numbers and devices to receive calls. There was a problem with beta signups for the service, though: it was showing people who tried to sign up other customers’ phone numbers.
Since the concept is supposed to be “forward your number to all of your devices” and not “forward your number to all of some rando’s devices,” customers halted their registrations and let the company know.
“Tried signing up for Digits and got logged into a random persons account,” one understandably freaked out customer Tweeted. “Please don’t let someone on mine.”
The idea of forwarding calls and messages between devices has security implications, but this was clearly a problem with early account signups. Daniel Marchena at XDA Developers tried to sign up, and noted that he saw other users’ personal information instead of his own seven different times.
We checked in with T-Mobile to find out what was going on after seeing a lot of complaints, mainly on Twitter and on Reddit, about the situation. T-Mobile got back to us, explaining that the situation has been fixed, and registration opened back up.
“[F]or a brief period of time this morning [Pacific time], we had an issue with our beta registration site and we quickly resolved the issue. Customers can go there now to register.”
If you encounter any further problems, be sure to alert T-Mobile, then let us know. We’d understand why anyone might be hesitant to use the service, though.
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