259

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

submitted 2 days ago by throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

78 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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Majestic@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 days ago

This is going to get DV victims killed. At least on phone tracking like iPhone's family sharing makes it clear it's happening and often has a way of disabling it when you make your final run for it allowing you to keep your phone.

[-] easily3667@lemmus.org 1 points 23 hours ago

Not really, diversity visa victims were probably going to be picked up by ice and deported to Ecuador anyway, regardless of what TMobile does.

But also, this isn't a new thing. Phones are literally always being tracked. If someone knows your number they could already pay a few bucks to locate your phone. This is why it's recommended to make your "public" number a voip and never share your cell number with anyone.

[-] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

In this context, DV probably means "domestic violence."

[-] easily3667@lemmus.org 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Yeah I was able to eventually figure it out but it took a bit so I was just mocking the original poster for not being able to use their words.

When people use an acronym I don't know I google it and use the first result. It makes life more amusing.

this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025

259 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy

37452 readers

329 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS