News about privacy jeopardy relating to Google Pixel devices broke out last week with customers reporting to have gotten their privacy breached after sending in their devices for repair.
The news has reached Google and the company recently acknowledged the issue while also launching an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter.
According to one allegation, the Google Pixel smartphone sent for repair led to the technicians accessing the individual’s privacy and publishing their private pictures across the internet.
The most prominent case is that of game designer and author Jane McGonigal who reportedly sent over her Pixel 5a for repair only to find out that her smartphone’s security was breached with the culprit accessing her Google Account and Dropbox.
She then posted the incident on Twitter making it known to the public that the technician had gained access to all of her data.
THE SUNDAY BYTE!
Subscribe to get access to weekly tech industry updates, reports, insiders’ insights, best product Bargains and so much more every Sunday
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
In order to find out about what the technician had seen, she went through her log and found that the individual had gained access to some of her sensitive pictures as well.
The culprit went as far as deleting her Google security notification from her backup email accounts so as to cover up any evidence of their wrongdoings as well as prevent McGonigal from getting any notification about accesses they’ve gained through her smartphone.
To make the matter worst, Google said it never received her smartphone even though she had sent it to a certified Google repair service by mail in Texas.
McGonigal’s case isn’t the first and probably won’t be the last as there was an earlier report about such an incident with the alleged victim getting all of her nude images leaked on social media.
The relationship between both incidents is the fact that they both sent their Google Pixel smartphones to the Texas repair facility.
The funniest thing is the fact that this might have happened to more people without being aware of their data being compromised.
Google is reportedly investigating the matter and McGonigal also tweeted that the “Pixel Support and Google Security have been extremely helpful today I am happy to report.”
It’s good news that Google is well aware and looking into the issue in order to identify the actual culprit – the technical officers at the facility or some hackers who is within the proximity?
