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Daylight robbery... Who's still this mentally deprived to get another subscription based anything?
If you want to install free tracking tools, you'll need consent or try to guess the lockscreen password to try to install it covertly.
With this, its doesn't require consent, since most families are on the same family plan.
Only abusers would use this, since a normal person who actually cares about a family member's safety would just ask them to install a tracking app voluntarily and be transparent about it.
Its tracking either way, but doing so voluntarily is way less creepy and also free.
Most modern Android and iOS allows you to share your locations for free via Google and Apple "Find My Phone" networks.
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 🤷♂️
I understand wanting to do this as a parent, but I'm so thankful I grew up without cell phones. I would never track a teenager. I feel like teenagers need space to assert their own autonomy and form an identity apart from their parents. When I think of the best moments I had with friends, it's almost always something that would have technically gone against my parents' knowledge and wishes, even though my parents were very good to me overall.
Who said anything about teenagers? Kids too young to be left without supervision can now learn independence. So kids can be more independent at younger age compared to "good old times"!
So geolocation would be supervision. Interesting.
I led with understanding, and I'm the one who mentioned teenagers in the comment I wrote with my own two hands
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.
Your experience isn't necessarily universal.
For my generation it’s close to universal
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."
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.
Good ol rose colored glasses.
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.
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.
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
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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...
The carrier can track a phone without sim card but it's not the case if you turn on airplane mode. The whole point of airplane mode is to prevent the phone from emitting any signal to avoid interference with critical aircraft instruments. I don't see any company risking to circumvent such a critical security feature, it would be easily verifiable.
These are great services. Insane that they charge for them but there are great use cases. Sorry kids, but parents need to know where you are.
Oh yeah, that's what parents need... Do you need some medical help?
No but my daughter does and knowing her mom and me can track her in the event of an emergency is a big relief for her and us. It lets her have more freedom and confidence then if we didn't have it
"Good morning daughter, how it was the date last night? great motel uh? ;)"
No Consent??
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...
Consent coming from those, that did not sign Tte contract obviously...
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Privacy
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