Are T-Mobile and other carriers spying on you?

Recently, a Redditor with the username toastedsausageman shared a letter they claimed to have received by snail mail from T-Mobile. The letter alleged that their account had been involved in accessing websites hosting questionable material, including “sites promoting hacking activities” or “featuring fictional characters presented as underage”.

The post immediately sparked debate over whether this was a phishing scam or simply a karma-farming attempt, though many users chimed in to say they had received similar letters. Adding to the intrigue, the source email appeared to be legitimate, as the same address is referenced in an unrelated official court document.

As it turns out, it is indeed a fake. As noted by T-Mobile in a response to the report, T-Mobile confirmed that these letters aren’t real and do not originate from T-Mobile or reflect its policies or practices. As it states:

“We do not monitor or censor browsing activities, and like other providers, we use standard protections to block access to known malicious sites for security purposes. We take this kind of impersonation seriously and are continuing to investigate. In the meantime, our Care team is following up with customers who reached out to us.”

There’s no word on how the culprits behind the letter scam actually obtained the information about T-Mobile users, or exactly how deep this hoax goes in terms of the number of people affected. For its part, T-Mobile says it is following up with any customers who have reached out about the issue.

While many of us were suspicious at the time due to the wording of the letter, there was considerable debate about the whole thing on Reddit. Many pointed to actual privacy policies, such as T-Mobile’s “Profiling and automated decisions,” believing that this could hint that such monitoring could technically be possible.

T-Mobile’s official response makes it clear that the carrier doesn’t monitor or censor browsing activities, but what does its actual profiling policy say?  Profiling, in T-Mobile’s own words, is “a specific type of activity under certain privacy laws and generally refers to the automated processing of personal data to evaluate, analyze, or predict certain personal aspects about your performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.” The idea is to create a behavioral profile that can be used to anticipate your future needs when seeking support and beyond.

Verizon has a similar-ish policy through its “Custom Experience” and “Custom Experience Plus” opt-out settings, which help Verizon personalize communications with the user and more. In Verizon’s own words, “the program uses information about websites you visit and apps you use on your mobile device, device location, and Customer Proprietary Network Information, including phone numbers you call or that call you, to help us understand your interests.”

Likewise, AT&T has a Personalized Plus setting that uses data “like web browsing and precise location for customization,” including your location, web browsing, viewership history, and even apps.

Technically speaking, it’s very possible that policies like those above would give the big carriers enough direct data to have a rough idea of the websites users visit, in theory. That said, the policies above are more about anonymized generalizations from AI, rather than actual monitoring.

In short, no, carriers aren’t really watching you. That said, do they have a lot of data on you that might still make a person a bit uncomfortable? Certainly.

While the initial letter scam proved to be nothing more than a hoax, it might be enough to get people to take their viewing habits and security a bit more seriously. There are some things you can do to better protect your data. First, we recommend opting out of any security and privacy settings you aren’t comfortable with, as there are a shocking number of settings that are turned on by default.

The exact method for doing this will vary depending on your carrier. Here’s a quick look at where you’ll find optional privacy settings for each of the three major carriers:

• AT&T: Big Blue makes it simple. Go to att.com/PrivacyChoices and sign in. From there, you’ll be given a list of options you can opt out of on a per-number basis.
• T-Mobile: Log in to your T-Mobile account and then go to My Account in the upper right corner, followed by Profile. From there, you’ll find a list of privacy settings that you can opt out of if you’d like.
• Verizon: Log in and go to Account > Account Overview, and from there select Edit Profile and Settings, then choose Manage Privacy settings.

Of course, if you really want to ensure your viewing data stays private and secure, there’s also the option of using a VPN like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, or SurfShark. In short, a VPN ensures your viewing habits and activities stay hidden from ISPs, carriers, and those looking to use your information for profiling for any reason, including trying to sell you stuff you don’t need.