back to article All that Samsung users found on UK website after weird Find my Mobile push notification was... other people's details

Following a mysterious "Find my Mobile" push notification this morning, questions are swirling around Samsung after customers found other users's login details being shown to them while trying to change their passwords. In the early hours of this morning, a very large number of Samsung devices around the world received a push …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Also got the notification in Germany

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and Portugal

      1. Bonzo_red

        My way

        Popped up on my Huawei as well.

        Nah, just kidding.

    2. Neoc

      And Australia. Twice, so far. I assumed it was a fishing attempt and ignored them.

      1. VerySlowData
        Meh

        here in Melbourne

        happened to my Samsung late last night.. very odd.. I ignored it also..

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And New Zealand

  2. Sartori

    Here was I thinking it was just me, got it this morning in England on my S9+. I thought.....that's weird......so tapped it, it disappeared and then promptly forgot all about it until I saw this article, odd.

    1. Baldrickk

      Likewise... I was far too tired to work out what it was - probably should have checked but figured it was just a glitch.

      Seems like a bigger glitch than I thought... :(

    2. Scott 26

      > Here was I thinking it was just me, got it this morning in England on my S9+.

      > I thought.....that's weird......so tapped it, it disappeared and then promptly forgot all

      > about it until I saw this article, odd.

      exactly the same here in Kiwiland

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. adam payne

    Mark showed us screenshots he had taken, showing himself logged in and someone else's details being displayed as if they were associated with his account.

    Is that the sound of the GDPR train stopping at the Samsung UK HQ station?!?

  4. IHateWearingATie
    WTF?

    What is odd for me is that not only had I disabled that app, I don't think I even have a Samsung account!

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      As the article tries to say: you don't need to do anything in order to receive the notifications and the only way to disable it is to replace the ROM.

  5. Julian 8 Silver badge

    Package Disabler Pro to disable some of this bloatware without root

    1. Problem Adult
      Unhappy

      Problem is, Package Disabler Pro is flakey, and their support is terrible. Take a look at the reviews for it.

      I bought it to get rid of the total abomination that is Bixby from a Galaxy S8. It did that. But a month or so later, PDP stopped working, and just reports a licence error. Emails to the app authors went unanswered.

      YMMV of course.

      1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

        Package Disabler Pro

        I recommend installing Package Disabler Pro on day 1. If that doesn't work, return the phone for a refund on day 2. It's essentially unusable without it. The shovelware causes non-stop advertising interruptions and security concerns.

        1. dvd

          Re: Package Disabler Pro

          All the crapware is basically why I abandoned Samsung. It was just intolerable.

  6. sqlrob

    I got the notification, and my details on the site are my own.

    FYI, the url should be https://account.samsung.com , it doesn't have the s on the end of account

  7. Alistair
    Windows

    All three samsung phones in this household got that notification here in Canuckistan.

    None of us have "samsung" accounts of any sort.

  8. neilo

    In the US, too

    I heard from Samsung-owning friends this happened in the US, too. Exactly the same symptoms.

  9. Peter Galbavy

    GDPR may even be useful here...

    So, is the 72 hour clock now ticking?

  10. DownUndaRob
    FAIL

    Australia too

    Got this here in Australia too....

    Strangely the Samsung site seems to be suffering a Slashdot effect.

    1. magicaces

      Re: Australia too

      Site seems down at the moment although I did manage to reset my password it was throwing some odd messages when I was putting a new random password in.

    2. Youngone Silver badge

      Re: Australia too

      Also in New Zealand, but upside down of course.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Big Brother

        Re: Australia too

        Me and the wife in flighty Blighty got the northern hemisphere approved 1/1. Presumably you received 1\1.

  11. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    I have a S8 stripped out image on my S7.

    Nothing thus far.

  12. Boufin

    I created a Samsung account, but only to disable the friggin' Bixby button. I saw the 1 1 notification too, but assumed it was a "butt dial" issue!

  13. SimonC

    Makes you wonder, I just got a new samsung phone and when I opened find my phone it popped up with a bunch of terms & conditions. I press decline and the app closed. I couldn't uninstall it.

    Then I got that notification. What was the point of the T&Cs again?

  14. BadBoy
    Pirate

    It's definitely not just the U.K. I'm in Canada, and it showed up on my phone (Note 8). A co-worker just confirmed he received the same thing also.

  15. sawatts

    At least they are testing...

    (UK, S10+ and a Tab A10.1)

  16. Fading
    Facepalm

    Yep received the same message myself.

    S8 here and assumed the "find my phone app" was flakey (though it was already disabled)....

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And in France

    Samsung A6 tablet here received it too. I logged into my account via the tablet, and only saw my own details, but I never use that account and have minimal info there. Only really enough for the "find" service to work (tablet was bought after the previous one was nicked, I was being a bit over-cautious).

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: And in France

      France, Orange, S9.

      Got nothing.

      I guess I'm just so boring that not even an automated glitch wants to be my friend...

  18. Eponymous Bastard

    Note9 & Tab S3

    Spotted this this morning. Thought I'd stroked something by mistake, dismissed it, forgot about it until I saw this, suffered no involuntary sphincter contraction. Goodnight.

  19. Nate Amsden

    never logged into samsung

    My S8 active got it as well, noticed it at around 4am pacific time in California. My phone has never logged into Samsung's services, and their authentication systems are blocked at a DNS level(account.samsung.com), and I have verified find my phone was disabled as well(never have had it enabled on any device). So can only assume the phones themselves poll the servers occasionally for this kind of thing.

    just another reminder the lack of control most users have over their own devices. IOS is worse regarding lack of control and Google is flying as fast as they can to mirror that experience on Android. For me, Android 4.x was the best(ran it for 6 years on a Note 3, my first android device before that I used WebOS).

  20. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Mushroom

    7.53

    I got mine... bing bong.. just after crawling under a robot with my galaxy J3 in my pocket

    crawl back out... WTF! I dont have find my phone enabled... or even a samsung account for that matter.

    Google for details... Three's website has fallen over (as usual), finally get an answer out of google about 'find my phone'... can only assume someone has breached my google account and is trying to locate me for malign reasons.

    Then find out its all a false alert.

    Oh well stress over.....

    Suppose it was lucky it wasn't an alert related to the icon >>>>

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Testing.. testing...

    Testing against live production data?

  22. MarkElmes

    Interesting to see how many elReg followers use Samsung yet hate on Google phones

  23. Ol'Peculier

    Not just phones, as people are noting. My S5e tablet got the notification, I wasn't aware it even had Find my Phone on it.

  24. pc-fluesterer.info
    Linux

    get rid of S... bloat

    I for one don't use Samsung because I don't want to support children's work or bloody raw material. Anyway, if someone has a Samsung device already and wants to get rid of bloatware and espionage, the only way out is a custom-ROM. I have done that on various Android devices, not yet on Samsung. But as far as the news go it seems to be a quite simple process, simpler than on other devices. The key is the SW Odin delivered by Samsung. Here an link to start from:

    https://www.cyanogenmods.org/forums/topic/lineage-os-16-for-galaxy-s5/

  25. pc-fluesterer.info
    Go

    get rid of S... bloat

    I for one don't use Samsung because I don't want to support children's work and bloody raw materials. But if someone owns already a S... device and wants to dispose off the bloatware and espionage, the only way is to install a custom ROM. That is no rocket science; I have done it on several devices from various manufacturers. Not yet on a S... but it seems to be easier than with some others. The key is the SW Odin delivered by S. Here is a link to start from:

    https://www.cyanogenmods.org/forums/topic/lineage-os-16-for-galaxy-s5/

    hth.

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