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.
Getting a Faraday pouch should be able to fix this
I mean, in a way it’s nice for consumers to have access to the features the police state has developed for itself, I guess?
Verizon has had this since flip phone days.
As you noted, it uses cell tower data, so anything that has a SIM can be located pretty accurately. (Technically anything with a cell radio, as towers will track that).
It’s how they had mapping on flip phones.
I remember talking to peers about location tracking with the first digital cell phones circa 1996. We were concerned then, but couldn’t get any non-tech folks to hear us.
Thats messed up if u can do this without consent of whoever you are tracking.
If you are gonna do this the right way, with consent, there’s probably free apps that can do this (not sure if there are any privacy friendly ones though, but I believe iphones have a tracking feature that’s free).
$10/month is scammy, but they know their target audience ig (abusers probably, like you say).
The counter argument on this is, you need to be an authorized person on the account to enable and considering authorized people are the people who are paying the bill they have full control. In the eyes of the Telecom the authorized user owns every device that’s on the account so they say they want to track it they’re allowed to track.
If you’re worried about privacy and someone tracking you that’s part of your plan, you need to isolate into a separate plan. You lose so many areas of privacy by being on someone else’s plan, like the saving money is nice but they can look up your call history, some carriers allow you to look up SMS history it’s not good
Czech T-Mobile also has this. It’s pretty cool they let you track the devices using their towers. Just the cost is different. There’s no location history, and it only does a location query on demand. Each query costs CZK 4.84 ($0.22).
Also, it needs “LPIN” which has to be set for the SIM card.
Well anyway, just looked up the FamilyWhere and this is the first result (excluding advertising):
https://www.t-mobile.com/community/discussions/accounts-services/familywhere-is-ruining-my-life/95189
so im a 34 year old woman who has a spouse that constantly uses the FamilyWhere app to track my location. That alone is extremely annoying. But what’s worse is that it’s oftern not accurate and tells him I’m at places that I am not. I’m not a child that needs to be tracked. does anyone know of an outside app that can completely block my gps signa? Turning off my location services on my iPhone doesn’t work. Please I’m so sick of fighting over the results it gives him. I called tomobile to ask them for help all the rep said was that he could disable my short codes, which would block the app. But since my spouse is the account holder all he had to do was call T-Mobile and reverse what I did. This is hell!!! Please someone any help is appreciated.
I mean, I hope that person isn’t in the situation anymore, but the only solution is turn on airplane mode and rely on public wifi networks for your communications.
Or use a prepaid phone with a separate plan.
(But seriously, maybe start thinking about divorce)
Also, please never take advice from telecom forums. Look at this comment I found in that thread:
way to give a lesson in how to be shady. Why do you all care if your HUSBAND knows where you are? He’s your HUSBAND he should be the only one who knows where you are at all times! And Vice versa.
Bruh 🤦♂️
Oh, the other replies didn’t load for me at first. There’s also this:
Well, I’m sorry you guys are fighting about this. However, it has been my experience that if you don’t want him tracking you it’s because you’re going or doing something that makes him uncomfortable or there has been shadiness in the past. My question is why do you care if he knows where you are? If you’re not hiding anything or going against the boundaries set forth in your relationship what does it matter if he knows where you are? Yes i believe that by turning on your location and giving full access you will help with the location that it will show. It is not about being treated like a child but maybe more so of a safety or security reason. I promise you if you give into it and simply answer his questions without attitude and get him to understand that it’s not always accurate things will be better. When you’re in the car together have it on so he can see how accurate it is and maybe that’ll get him to realise how the system works. I promise you if you give into it for a little while he’ll not want to check it as much and will get bored and trust more. The arguing about it makes it look sketchy and there won’t be trust, which sounds like what you guys need. I am speaking from experience.
