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 1 week 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.

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[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 66 points 1 week ago (7 children)

This is a useful feature. If you are in an abusive household, then yes you should have as much financial separation as possible. For those that are in a happy and functional family with kids that you want to allow freedom for, this provides a measure of safety if you need it for potential emergency's or if they aren't answering the phone or whatever.

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[–] irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 50 points 1 week ago

Not a new thing, and I can definitely see good uses for this information. What they should have done is made it so that the one being tracked gets a log and real time notification any time someone is tracking them. This would alleviate some of the toxic spying behavior simply by making it transparent rather than covert.

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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...

[–] corvus@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago

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.

[+] Ledivin@lemmy.world -6 points 1 week ago (4 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 🤷‍♂️

[–] isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 5 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

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

And then they'll be grounded 🤷‍♂️ rules exist for a reason

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] zzffyfajzkzhnsweqm@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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"!

[–] phase@lemmy.8th.world 1 points 6 days ago

So geolocation would be supervision. Interesting.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

I led with understanding, and I'm the one who mentioned teenagers in the comment I wrote with my own two hands

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week 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 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week 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.

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week 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.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week 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 1 week 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.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 1 week ago

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

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 6 points 1 week 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 1 week ago (2 children)

Your experience isn't necessarily universal.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 1 week ago

There was a time lol

Kids wouldn't understand

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org -5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

For my generation it’s close to universal

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 6 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 1 week ago

Several? How big was your elementary school?

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

Good ol rose colored glasses.

[–] entwine413@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week 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.

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