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submitted 8 months ago by Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

I'm taking a long biking trip soon and want to share my live location with my boyfriend in case something happens. Any recommendations for privacy-focused apps that can accomplish this? I'm on Android, he's on iOS.

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[-] figaro 88 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

So I know everyone will hate this suggestion, but the most battery efficient and privacy-oriented option is to use Google maps location sharing. Google already has your location through Google Play services, and uses that to update it. It is essentially real time, and you don't need to give your info over to a random new company.

Unless you have fully de-googled, this is probably the best and easiest option.

[-] KillingAndKindess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 8 months ago

I agree. When your safety is of concern, lending a bit of privacy to google is the best bet for an android user. Lending being the operative word.

[-] kender242@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

Was going to recommend this too. Sometimes Google integration just works. Wish they kept the "don't be evil" ethos.

[-] pacoboyd@lemm.ee 3 points 8 months ago

Yup, just switched to this. It's not quite as live as I was used to with life360, but it works for what we need.

[-] figaro 13 points 8 months ago

Dude life360 is terrible. They just got caught selling location data to 3rd parties too I think? That on top of the battery drain of your phone constantly polling gps. It's all bad.

[-] pacoboyd@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago

Drain wasn't terrible for me, and live location is miles better than maps. But yeah, ditched because of thier bad rep.

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I use this with my family since none of us are de googled yet. Works fine.

[-] robotdna@toast.ooo 30 points 8 months ago

I started out with Owntracks. I found it to be unreasonably complex. I swapped to Traccar. It was much easier to get functional.

[-] robotdna@toast.ooo 13 points 8 months ago

I should note that my scenario was exactly the same. I wanted to share location with family. Additionally, Traccar supports temporary location share links for friends if you'd like. You'll need to self-host it- I personally set up the Traccar server inside kubernetes and used Traefik for reverse proxy and SSL, but this is not necessary.

[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 8 months ago

Self hosted is fine - I have a dev server I can toss it on. Thanks!

[-] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 8 months ago

The alternative to Traccar is Find My Device (FMD)

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 8 months ago

The nice thing about Apple's Find My is that it runs in the background but only checks and sends your location when someone is actively looking at your location. Do these do that as well? I've tried Telegram's location sharing before and it drains battery like crazy because it keeps the GPS receiver always on.

[-] robotdna@toast.ooo 2 points 8 months ago

You change how frequently checks are performed. Traccar runs a simple every X seconds pattern. Default is 5 minutes. On 5 minute pings I see a 15-20% drain over the course of 24 hours, which seems reasonable, given that I'm on GrapheneOS and not leveraging Google's location tracking simplifications. If you're not on GrapheneOS your battery usage for location tracking will probably be better. Just not private.

[-] barbara@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

Did you already look into osmand and telegram?

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 months ago

Did you respond to the right comment? I mentioned Telegram specifically and I'm fairly certain OsmAnd can't do live location sharing.

[-] barbara@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That's why I responded to you. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.telegram

I wouldn't suggest a solution using telegram to anyone not already using it.

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 8 months ago

Oh, that's a separate app, I wasn't aware of that, no. Interesting, thanks! I don't use Telegram anymore though.

[-] lemmyreader@lemmy.ml 9 points 8 months ago

I've seen other people recommend OwnTracks : https://owntracks.org

[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 months ago

This looks perfect. Thanks!

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

Owntracks is pricesely that.

[-] PancakeBrock@lemmy.zip 7 points 8 months ago

Not an app but I use a Garmin inreach mini when I go backpacking. You can set it to automatically share your location at set intervals. Also not sure how Garmin handles data so not sure about the privacy aspect either.

[-] barbara@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago

You could use his nextcloud account and use https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.mendhak.gpslogger/ to upload your location to phonetrack within nextcloud.

[-] bbuez@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Its not something I had set out intending but Homeassistant has made a great replacement for life360 across ecosystems, though you'll need a server of sorts and either a VPN on each device or a domain with SSL.

Locus seems interesting, just took a quick glance. alternatives.to is always a great bet finding some replacement services, there's a good few others for location tracking

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago
[-] Gooey0210@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 months ago

I have an interesting solution- LoRa

You will need some extra hardware, but it will be possible to messsage and share GPS if the board supports it, or even walkie talkie style voice messages on some firmwares

[-] Reawake9179@lemmy.kde.social 2 points 8 months ago

Privacy focused would've been selfhosted, as one device has to send the update to something which is always available.

There are two easy to setup solutions, Home-Assistant and Nextcloud, both have the tools.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org -4 points 8 months ago
[-] HumanPerson@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 months ago

Apart from privacy concerns, if they aren't near people with iPhones it wouldn't work that well.

this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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