Smartphones send private photos to random contacts

A BUG with several Samsung smartphone models has seen private photos secretly sent out to contacts stored on the devices, owners are reporting.

The issue is effecting recent handsets, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S9, with the problem appearing to stem from the default messaging app Samsung Messages.

Some users have reported that individual images, or even entire picture galleries, have been erroneously sent to random contacts via SMS.

Samsung is aware of the issue and said it was investigating the reports, which have been appearing on Reddit and official Samsung customer forums.

“Samsung has reviewed this matter thoroughly these past few days; however, there were no hardware or software issues found to be relevant to this particular case,” Samsung said in a statement.

“We are aware of the reports regarding this matter and our technical teams are looking into it. Concerned customers are encouraged to contact us directly.”

In one account, Reddit user Rubsumlotion claimed his Samsung Galaxy S9+ sent his “entire photo gallery over text” to his girlfriend.

Other users have since reported similar issues, but no cause has been found.

However, some have reported receiving an update to their messaging app that enables Rich Communication Services (RCS), which is currently being slowly introduced around the world.

This is the technology designed to replace SMS as the modern standard for text messaging and is programmed to make sending multimedia content easier.

In the meantime, it has been suggested users switch to a different messaging app or disable access to a phone’s storage in the Samsung Messages app in order to prevent any files being sent.