Linus Tech Tips Discussion

 AT&T is suing T-Mobile for “Switching Made Easy” Summary T-Mobile recently launched "Switching Made Easy", an AI assisted mode in their mobile app which takes control of your account page for Verizon or AT&T to scrape account data like number of lines, plans, installment agreements, etc. then offers recommendations for T-Mobile equivalents and current offers to switch based on what the customer might qualify for. AT&T and Verizon are both trying to block the feature, but AT&T has gone further in suing T-Mobile and trying to get Apple to remove the T-Mobile app (T-Life) from the app store.   Quotes Quote "AT&T has taken actions to prevent T-Mobile from putting customers at risk through its irresponsible implementation of bots and AI to unlawfully harvest private customer data and competitors’ intellectual property. Our customers trust AT&T with their personal information, and we will continue to protect them from T-Mobile’s reckless business practices by giving them, not an unknown bot, control of their personal data."   'AT&T sent T-Mobile a cease and desist letter on November 24th demanding T-Mobile stop the scraping process. T-Mobile responded two days later refusing, stating that the process was legal because “customers themselves … log into their own wireless account.”'   My thoughts I'm no lawyer... but my gut tells me, T-Mobile claiming this is okay because a user has to sign in and allow the access is probably not good enough. There are always terms for how a website or service can be used, I'd be surprised if AT&T and Verizon did not already have terms that disallow automated tools to scrape personal account info, and if they do, the account owner cannot override those web terms by saying it's okay. The T-Mobile tool has been updated for AT&T customers to now ask for a .PDF of the last bill, which seems a lot safer to me, that doesn't have any terms and conditions, the customer can share that pii with anyone they want, for any reason they want. It's also funny to me, how T-Mobile decided to try, three times, to change the way their tool works to bypass Verizon/AT&T attempts to detect and block it, clearly they know the other companies don't want them scraping data, and I don't think those attempts to work around the blocks will look good in court...   Sources https://tmo.report/2025/12/att-is-extremely-angry-about-t-mobiles-switching-made-easy/ https://www.thestreet.com/retail/att-sues-t-mobile-for-bold-new-tactic-to-lure-customers https://www.androidauthority.com/att-verizon-block-t-life-app-3621835/ SME_Complaint.pdf Brief_In_Support_Of_TRO.pdf