Google Pixel phones suffer privacy woes as phones sent for warranty repairs are getting hijacked

Some Google Pixel users are reporting that someone is hijacking their phones that they mailed to Google for repairs. The latest complaint comes from Jane McGonigal, an NYT bestselling author and game designer. According to Jane’s tweet, someone used her Google Pixel 5a, which the author mailed in for repair, to access her Google Drive, Gmail, DropBox, and backup email for the Photos app. Upon seeing her activity log, she also discovered that the hijacker had accessed her private photos and had deleted the security notifications from the backup account.

Furthermore, Jane also mentioned that she was in contact with Google support for a week before her phone was hacked. She was inquiring why FedEx was showing her phone as delivered to the warehouse but Google never received it. Afterward, Google reportedly charged her for a replacement device before refunding the amount weeks later.

This incident is not the first time that someone has had their Google Pixel missing from the warehouse. According to The Verge, this report is the second such incident in two weeks. Google’s Alex Moriconi remarked that the company is looking into the issue.

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