Some Samsung phones are apparently sending users’ photos to random contacts without their permission. There has been an upheaval of complaints on Reddit and the official Samsung forums regarding this issue which has plagued quite a lot of users, and judging from the complaints, it is likely a software and not a hardware issue.
According to the users, Samsung’s default messaging app, Samsung Messages is automatically sending pictures on the device to random contacts via SMS/MMS. In an unfortunate incident, a user claimed that their entire photo gallery was sent to a contact in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the pictures got sent to their partner, but imagine if anyone other than their partner would’ve received it and got an unwanted (unless you are a creep) look into someone’s personal life. But that’s not the worst part. Even after sending out all those pictures, Samsung Messages has no history of any sort showing that any image has been sent unless the person they have been sent to, tells you so. This is quite serious of a bug.
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Apparently, the issue is caused due to a flawed interaction between Samsung Messages and RCS (Rich Communication Services) profile updates that have rolled out on carriers including T-Mobile. RCS updates the media sharing, typing indicators and other such protocols. When Gizmodo contacted Samsung for a comment, Samsung replied,”We are aware of the reports regarding this matter and our technical teams are looking into it. Concerned customers are encouraged to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”. T-mobile referred the users back so Samsung by saying that it’s not a carrier issue.
If you have been a victim of the same or want (there is no reason not to) to prevent this from happening, revoke the Samsung Messages ability to read storage on your phone through settings. Another option is to use a different SMS client. A simple search in the play store would lead you to some good, noteworthy ones. Let’s hope that this issue does not stay an issue for much longer because this time it’s the users’ privacy that’s at stake.