Potential Parental Control Misconduct

[cacra]

Hi, 

 

Bit of a weird one; I brought a Huawei Pro p20 contract from my friend who works for EE. Recently we have had a falling out and I have discovered my parental Controls have turned on. 

 

Normally I wouldn't jump to any conclusions but when we were talking he would brag to me about the control he had over people's phone. Including being able to see browsing history among other things. However, I am not sure if this is just hyperbole 

 

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light over whether it is possible he has turned on the parental controls without my consent. And if so, what do you think I should do? 

 

[kirashi]

33 minutes ago, cacra said:

Hi, 

Bit of a weird one; I brought a Huawei Pro p20 contract from my friend who works for EE. Recently we have had a falling out and I have discovered my parental Controls have turned on. 

Normally I wouldn't jump to any conclusions but when we were talking he would brag to me about the control he had over people's phone. Including being able to see browsing history among other things. However, I am not sure if this is just hyperbole 

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light over whether it is possible he has turned on the parental controls without my consent. And if so, what do you think I should do? 

 

Did you factory reset the phone when it was given to you? And is the phone enrolled in an MDM profile of any kind?

[cacra]

6 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Did you factory reset the phone when it was given to you? And is the phone enrolled in an MDM profile of any kind?

No I didn't and I'm not sure. 

 

The parental Controls only work when I use data from EE and I can call them up and remove them no problem, I'm just concerned about the possibility rogue employees can change my settings seemingly at will and without my knowledge or consent. 

[kirashi]

5 minutes ago, cacra said:

No I didn't and I'm not sure. 

 

The parental Controls only work when I use data from EE and I can call them up and remove them no problem, I'm just concerned about the possibility rogue employees can change my settings seemingly at will and without my knowledge or consent. 

Technically speaking, any software you don't write yourself has the potential to be remotely controlled. (Since you have no way of knowing what's in the source code unless you inspect & compile it yourself.) That being said, if it runs Android and isn't enrolled in an MDM profile, I'd advise that you should've factory reset it when it was given to you (you can still do this now) and verify that the parental controls are not on your carrier EE's side.

 

Some carriers offer parental controls that help lock down mobile data usage, similar to routers that come with web filtering features. If that's the case, the only way around that is attempting to use a VPN, but you should be able to turn such feature off via whatever account system EE has. (No idea how their network handles parental controls as I'm obviously not on EE - you can call their tech support and ask.)

[cacra]

2 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Technically speaking, any software you don't write yourself has the potential to be remotely controlled. (Since you have no way of knowing what's in the source code unless you inspect & compile it yourself.) That being said, if it runs Android and isn't enrolled in an MDM profile, I'd advise that you should've factory reset it when it was given to you (you can still do this now) and verify that the parental controls are not on your carrier EE's side.

 

Some carriers offer parental controls that help lock down mobile data usage, similar to routers that come with web filtering features. If that's the case, the only way around that is attempting to use a VPN, but you should be able to turn such feature off via whatever account system EE has. (No idea how their network handles parental controls as I'm obviously not on EE - you can call their tech support and ask.)

I understand but I should have been more specific with my question: do sales reps have the authority to change my phone settings without my knowledge or consent? 

[cacra]

Tbh to complicate things further the parental Controls have now been removed. This isn't the first time this has happened, it seems like they turn on for a certain part of the day and then turn back off. 

 

Im not sure if I'm just being paranoid or if this is something that can be done. 

[kirashi]

48 minutes ago, cacra said:

I understand but I should have been more specific with my question: do sales reps have the authority to change my phone settings without my knowledge or consent? 

Do they have the authority? No - unless you're using a company issued phone locked down with an MDM profile, there's no one other than yourself that has the authority to change these settings. However, is there a possibility that there's an app leftover from the prior owner allowing such changes? Yes, if you didn't factory reset, sure. Sounds to me like you might have an app installed causing this, or your account is right broke on the backend.

 

Out of curiosity... what exactly do you see on your phone that tell you these parental controls are enabled? If you can screenshot what you see, that will help a lot.

[cacra]

So the parental Controls aren't any software on my phone instead it is some sort of block when using 4g. It is also a brand new phone so there's no chance there's any software from  previous owners and I brought the contract as a private individual.