this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025

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Privacy

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Spy on your family member's movements for just 10 Dollars a month! Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back! (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago by throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

83 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/37022405

This is a carrier in the USA (T-Mobile).

I did a quick search for the other 2 carriers using the term "[Carrier Name] Family Tracking" and Verizon and AT&T also seems to have it.

And according to https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/t-mobile-familywhere-app, it says:

FamilyWhere uses geolocation data from the T-Mobile network and is not affected by changes to device location settings.

So it appears that its using cell tower triangulation. Turning on Airplane Mode should stop it (assuming there isn't a separate tracking app on your phone)

Oh Wow, What a wonderful tool for abusive spouses and abusive parents. And telecom companies are making money off of it. 🙃

TLDR: Its a good idea to get your own separate cellular plan.

(page 2) 44 comments

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[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

This isn't new, cell tower triangulation is a fact of the network operation and is part of how your signal gets handed off between towers as you travel. Airplane wouldn't do anything unless it where to actually disable the sim entirely, and functionally even that doesn't cut it in the USA given that a device without one can still connect to emergency services via any tower in reach.

This is just the carrier giving a customer the data that would already exist, for a price, which I thought T-Mo actually used to give for free...

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[–] DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Find My and Google's device locator service exist, they're free and work without a carrier. Ik they're not that private, but you save money at least and they're more private than your carrier.

[–] ReakDuck@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But you need geolocation. This, at least, can track you scarily accurate. Cannot escape it except you have more money depending on which situation. (Like parents giving it for free to the child, so the only escape is to either have secretly a second phone with own carrier plan or be open and purchase your own carrier plan by gaslighting its needed)

[–] DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago

Or maybe a prepaid SIM card where you top up your credit.

[–] LiamTheBox@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No Consent??

[–] dzso@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm sure that the "consent" is part of the terms and conditions when you sign up for a line on a family plan. Not that it's genuinely informed consent, or that people know what they agreed to, but technically...

[–] Undertaker@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago

Consent coming from those, that did not sign Tte contract obviously...

[+] Ledivin@lemmy.world -6 points 4 days ago (7 children)

If we didn't have this, my kids would have a lot less freedom. Knowing where they are gives me much more peace of mind to let them roam further, and for longer than I would otherwise 🤷‍♂️

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

My kids don't even have phones, as they do not need them and they are unhealthy for the young brain's development.

I also don't use location services on my phones. Fuck all that tracking bullshit.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You don't need to use location services to be tracked by cell towers.

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (3 children)

That's true but it's not in the same ballpark as GPS tracking. The phone company knows what county I'm in but probably not what businesses and municipal buildings I enter on foot unlike GPS location services. Bluetooth and Wifi are also disabled when I leave the house to minimize those being used for device tracking.

It's just good practice to disable all the unused wireless radios in your pocket computer. Don't turn them on until you need them on. It saves a lot of battery life too.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The phone company knows what county I’m in but probably not what businesses and municipal buildings I enter on foot unlike GPS location services.

They have your approximate location. If you are in a densely populated city, they might not know which specific building or which specific apartment unit, but they'll have a small circle around the area, and if you are in a suburb, where things are more spaced out, they will know the exact stores you go to.

If you go to a walmart with huge parking spaces all around it, its obvious you went to a walmart.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 4 days ago

It could rather be more accurate in a dense area thanks to more cell towers. And it seems mmWave 5G can get below 1 meter in accuracy.

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 3 points 4 days ago

The phone company can get your location down to a few dozen feet depending on the number of 4G (50 to 70 metres) and 5G (10-50 metres) towers around.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 4 days ago

Make sure you turn off your 5g in addition to what OP explained in sister comment

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

A cheap dumbphone could come in handy at almost any age* (calls, short SMS, especially in emergency situations). Though there is a possibility they wouldn't want to be seen with that. Kids will bully each other for whatever isn't a norm.
Anyway, preferably a simpler one. I used to spend hours each day on Java games. Really, the only thing that stopped me was headaches.

* Almost any - you don't want a 3 year old calling 911 for fun

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I grew up in a time before cell phones, I had a lot more freedom than your kids will ever experience. Crime rates were much higher back then by the way. I still survived even though my parents rarely knew where I was between 4 and 6 pm, but I was always home in time for dinner.

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Your experience isn't necessarily universal.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 4 days ago

There was a time lol

Kids wouldn't understand

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org -5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

For my generation it’s close to universal

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Several kids from my elementary school disappeared, never to be heard from again. This happened again in middle school, and twice in high school.

Just because you weren't paying attention back then or don't remember now doesn't mean it didn't happen. As you said, crime was worse then.

Basically any time someone says "This didn't happen back in my day!" the response can be "the dead ones can't talk about it."

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 3 days ago

When children are kidnapped, the kidnapper is most often a family member. It happened to a good friend of mine. I don't see what good cell phone location tracking really does against that, though. A kidnapper can simply take a child's phone away and toss it.

[–] MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 4 days ago

Several? How big was your elementary school?

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Good ol rose colored glasses.

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

That's not how anecdotal evidence works. Just because you aren't aware of it being different for others doesn't mean it wasn't different for others.

[–] isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

aaand next time they'll leave their cell phone home to not get tracked, so not only do you not get their location, they can't even call you in an emergency

good parenting, i guess

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