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YOUR PROTECTION

Family Controls and privacy.

Time to read: 7 minutes

Girl wraps arms around her dad’s neck and shows off her SyncUP kid’s watch.

At a glance

We don’t knowingly collect data from or about children without the permission of their parent or guardian. 

Providing the product or service is the main reason we collect children’s data. 

We offer privacy settings and Family Controls that give you control over your children’s data and how they use their devices.

Children’s data

We know it’s important to treat data you tell us is from children under 16 and data from our products and services designed for children carefully. We want you to be in control of how your family uses their devices, so we offer you features and apps that help you manage their online activities.

What children’s data we collect

We don’t knowingly collect data from or about children under 16 without the permission of their parent or guardian. When we do collect that data, we might do it directly, like when you sign up for a service. We might also collect it automatically if your child uses the products or services we offer. The main reason we collect children’s data is to provide the product or service. We may also do other things with children’s data, like comply with and enforce legal and regulatory obligations and respond to government requests.

Our different products and services, like Kids’ Line, FamilyMode, Safe & Found, and SyncUP KIDS Watch, collect different types of data. For example, with a Kids’ Line, we collect geolocation data that tells us the location of your child’s mobile device so we can deliver wireless service. We also collect unique identifiers so we can tell which mobile device on our network is your child’s. These are just examples of the data we collect from a Kids’ Line.

For a more comprehensive look at what data each of our products and services collects and how we use it, visit the Children’s Privacy Notice.

When we share children’s data

We don’t knowingly sell the personal data of children under 16. We also don’t knowingly share the personal data of children under 16 for advertising purposes.

Sometimes we hire others to help us provide a better product or service, and these service providers may need access to children’s data. They are required to keep the children’s data we provide them confidential and to use it only to provide the services we requested.

We may also share children’s data with third parties, including the government, for legal processes or to protect life and safety where we believe that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the data is reasonably necessary. For a more comprehensive look at when we share children’s data, please visit the Children’s Privacy Notice.

For Project 10Million, we may also share aggregate versions of data (meaning data that can’t be associated with an individual child) with government agencies or schools.

How to control your children’s data

Kids' Line privacy setting

T‑Mobile is currently testing the ability for parents and guardians to designate a line as a “Kids’ Line.” This feature lets parents tell us that a line on their account is used by a child under the age of 16. We won’t use data from designated Kids’ Lines for advertising, and we’ll opt the line out of receiving marketing communications from T‑Mobile.

This feature is currently only available to customers with T‑Mobile plans, but we’re working hard to expand access to all other customers soon. In the meantime, you can opt out of the use of your data for advertising at any time through your account settings.

Set up or change a Kids' Line

From the Privacy Dashboard
  1. Visit our Privacy Dashboard.
  2. Log in to your T-Mobile account.
  3. Scroll to the Kids’ Line manager.
  4. Is the selected line the one you want to change? If not, scroll to the top of the Privacy Dashboard to “Manage a different line” and select the correct line.
  5. In the Kids’ Line manager, check the current status of the selected line. The button indicates whether the line is designated as an Adult Line or a Kids’ Line. 
  6. If you want to change a Kids’ Line to an Adult Line, activate the round button next to “Adult Line.” Then, click “Submit.” The Kids’ Line is now an Adult Line with all data-collection controls and marketing preferences enabled so you can manage them.
  7. If you want to change an Adult Line to a Kids’ Line, start by activating the round button next to “Kids’ Line.”
  8. Now select your child’s birth month and year.
  9. Click “Submit.”
  10. Next, review the privacy information, check the certification box, and click “Accept and save.”
  11. The selected line is now a Kids’ Line with all data-collection controls and marketing preferences turned off and disabled.

From your T-Mobile.com account

  1. Log in to your T-Mobile.com account or the T-Mobile app.
  2. Click “Profile.”
  3. Click “Family Controls.”
  4. Click “Privacy settings for kids.”
  5. Click “Get started.”
  6. Lines are listed as Kids’ Lines or Standard Lines.
  7. If you want to change a Kids’ Line to a Standard or Adult Line, click “Edit.” Then activate the round button next to “Adult Line” and click “Save changes.” The Kids’ Line is now an Adult Line with all data-collection controls and marketing preferences enabled. Please visit our Privacy Dashboard to manage your settings.
  8. If you want to change a Standard or Adult Line to a Kids’ Line, click “Edit.” Then activate the round button next to “Kid Line.”
  9. Now enter the child’s birth month and year in this format: mm/yyyy.
  10. Click “Save changes.”
  11. Review the privacy information, check the certification box, and click “Accept & Consent.” Note: To correct a saved date, change the line back to an “Adult line,” save the changes, and then restart the process.
  12. The selected line is now a Kids’ Line with all data-collection controls and marketing preferences turned off and disabled.

Note: These changes may take approximately 24 hours to take effect.

More about Kids’ Lines

  • With a Kids’ Line, you can still view the previously set marketing preferences selections, but you won’t be able to edit them because a Kids’ Line designation overrides these preferences.
  • Lines that are designated for kid-specific devices, like kids’ watches, are automatically designated as Kids’ Lines and can’t be changed to Adult Lines.
  • If you’re not the owner of the account, you won’t be able to change a Kids’ Line to an Adult Line. Please contact the owner who manages the account.

Your choices as a parent or guardian

Parents and guardians have choices when it comes to their children’s data:

  • To consent, or not, to the collection of their children’s data.
  • To change their mind and withdraw consent to the collection of their children’s personal data.
  • To see the personal data T-Mobile collects about their children, included in a form they can read, use, and transfer when possible.
  • To ask us to delete or correct personal data T-Mobile has collected about their children.

You can take any of these steps through our Privacy Dashboard. We may need to collect some data from you to confirm you’re the parent or guardian.

Important: If you change your mind about giving consent or ask us to delete the data, the product or service may no longer work. In some cases, the only way for us to stop your child’s data from being collected is to cancel the specific service.

Family controls

We offer several features and apps designed to help you manage your family’s device use.

FamilyMode and Safe & Found

FamilyMode and Safe & Found are two solutions that let parents manage and control their kids’ online activities and screen time across the family’s compatible devices. With these products you can:

  • Control when and where your family can access the internet
  • Keep your family safe with live tracking and location history (available in FamilyMode 3.2 only)
  • Create profiles for your family
  • Set web browsing filters and manage history
  • View locations and set a Safety Area that lets you know when a child arrives or leaves a specific area
  • Send rewards for good behavior

To learn more, visit FamilyMode or Safe & Found.

Family Allowances®

This optional T-Mobile feature lets you assign allowances for minutes, messages, and downloads to all lines on the account. With Family Allowances, you can:

  • Set “Always Allowed®" numbers to enable unlimited calling or texting and “Never Allowed®” numbers to restrict calling or texting
  • Allow usage blocking during certain times of day 
  • See amount spent on calls per account line
  • Manage talk time limit for all calls
  • See total number of messages sent and received, and amount spent on downloads per account
  • Limit amount of money spent on any downloaded games, apps, and more
  • Control when those with managed lines can use their devices

To learn more, visit Family Allowances.

T-Mobile FamilyWhere®

T-Mobile FamilyWhere is an optional T-Mobile feature that lets you locate phones on your T-Mobile account and review a seven-day log of location history. It can be managed from your T-Mobile.com account or through the T-Mobile FamilyWhere app (available only for Android devices).

To learn more, visit FamilyWhere.

Web Guard

Want to limit your child from viewing certain content online? Web Guard is a free service that can be added to select lines on a T-Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile account to help restrict adult content from being accessed when connected to our network.

However, it doesn’t restrict content when browsing over Wi-Fi or accessing content via an app, and it won’t block instant messaging (IM), email, and text messages.

To learn more, visit Web Guard.

You can always call Customer Care with questions about any of T-Mobile’s Family Controls.

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