Track Cell Phone
How To Track and Locate a Cell Phone
Even if you're not a spy, you might have a perfectly legitimate need to track the location of a cell phone. Fortunately, there are ways to do so, and some are even free. Here's a roundup of tools to track a cell phone location.
Google Latitude is one free service that keeps track of your contacts by locating their cell phones and displaying their whereabouts on a Google Map. You have to download and install a Google App on your phone or computer to do this, and each person whose phone number you provide must agree to be tracked by you. Note that you don't need a GPS-enabled phone to use Latitude. The service can use GPS, wifi access points, or cell towers to determine the location of your phone.
If you receive an email invitation to allow one of your contacts to track you via Google Latitude, you may wonder whether to accept and allow it. Google Latitude lets you control when your phone is tracked, so you can turn off permission to track you when you want to travel to parts unknown. The danger, of course, is that you may forget to turn off Google Latitude when you should.
If you have access to a GPS-enabled cell phone you can install software on it that enables tracking, sometimes without telling the user you've done so. A number of services such as Accutracking or uLocate.com offers such software and tracking services for a fee. The obvious legitimate application is a parent who wants to keep tabs on children. Employers increasingly want to know where employees are during business hours, so company-issued GPS phones equipped with tracking software are one solution. But you might also find it handy if your phone is lost or stolen.
Other Mobile Phone Tracking Software
If you have an Android-based phone such as the Verizon Droid, an HTC Dream (aka T-Mobile G1), or a Motorola CLIQ, you can install a free app called Pintail that will help you locate a mobile phone. If your phone is lost, just send it a text message from any other phone, with a special PIN code. Pintail will do a little magic to pinpoint the location of the phone, and then send a return message, containing the location and a link to Google Maps. That's cool. You can download Pintail via the Android Market on your phone.
Blackberry and iPhone users can try InstaMapper, a free service that lets you to track a GPS-enabled cell phone via an interactive Google map. Another option for iPhone users is Apple's Find My iPhone, which allows iPhone owners to locate a lost or stolen phone. This one requires a $99 annual subscription to Apple's MobileMe online service.
Did you know that GPS enables very precise tracking, down to as little as one meter (roughly 39 inches). But GPS is not the only way to track a cell phone. Older phones not equipped with GPS can be triangulated. A phone's signal, received by any three nearby cellular service towers, pinpoints its position within a relatively small area. But this type of cell phone tracking would require the cooperation of your service provider and law enforcement.
Phone Tracking Scams
Can you track a phone just by entering its number on a Web site? Not unless you're in law enforcement with access to sophisticated equipment and (in the United States and many other countries) a court order authorizing that phone's service provider to assist you. Don't be fooled by Web sites that say, "just enter any phone number to pinpoint its exact location." They are hoaxes, one and all. Some are harmless jokes, but many are collecting phone numbers to sell to telemarketers. Some may attempt to download malware to your computer.
While we're dealing with ethics, or the lack thereof, consider this. If the possibility of being tracked via your cell phone bothers you, then maybe it's not something you should do to someone else without his or her permission.
Do you have something to say about cell phone tracking? Post your comment or question below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on March 5, 2010 07:46 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Track Cell Phone (Posted: March 5, 2010 07:46 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/track_cell_phone.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Track Cell Phone"
(See all 13 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Mike
10 Mar 2010
I think it's a violation of privacy, fair enough if it's one's own phone. But the idea of someone being able to track me (even if i did chose to accept it) bothers me. I think some things are best left to the Government agencies. Having said that, this service would be invaluable for finding a lost phone.
Posted by:
wazzat
10 Mar 2010
A week and a half ago we left for a vacation weekend and in my hurry, could swear I threw my cell phone in the console. This was between 11PM and 215 AM arrival time. And the beginning of the last snow storm for the East. Well, while unloading, reached for the phone and realized I had another without a camera. Called Tracfone after returning home and searching for it. Asked if it could be traced using GPS or something. Service told me No but they deactivated it. Asked if they could tell how many minutes were on it and again NO. They did send me an email telling me that if I bought another phone they'll try to determine how many minutes were on it or supply the new phone with my last purchased minutes. After receiving a new phone yesterday, will call them to see if they'll supply some minutes because I had over 300. When we arrived at our destinatiion, I thought take the phone from the console but it was late and we were settled so I didn't go to the valet station to retrieve it. If it was there. Would a valet steal a Tracfone?
Posted by:
Rob
10 Mar 2010
I love the idea of permission based tracking. In today's world with so many couple's who think they are monogamous having both agree to such for each other is a perfect way to keep the temptation away. I personally have no problem being true to my love, and I feel the same is true for her with me, but again in today's world, you never can tell. Plus, I frequently give direction based on current location over the phone, and this would just help if she had no idea where she was.
The idea of open to the public I can't see any reason to allow this, and even disagree with government doing so.
When it comes to National Security, I do agree we need to do what we can to Protect our Soil, and if that must be done, then so be it. No reason for planes to fly into our buildings EVER.
Rob - Going to ask the woman in my life, if she would agree to this... If the answer is no, I will have to wonder... :-) I would agree in an instant, as I trust myself.
Posted by:
TanMan
10 Mar 2010
My daughter takes a bus to college in Newark, NJ (not the safest city). I drive her to and from the bus stop. My only way to keep in touch with her while she's there is her cell phone.
She texts me when she gets on the bus to come home. One day, I didn't the the text. I tried to contact her, but she didn't answer, but my texts to her were listed as "delivered" on my phone.
Thinking perhaps there was something wrong with her phone, I went to the bus stop at the normal time, but she didn't get off the bus.
We called the school police who tried to be helpful, but there wasn't much they could do until she was missing for 24 hours.
Knowing the cell phones had GPS capabilities, I called our cell phone provider, VZW. They said that without the software installed on the phone (at $10/month), I couldn't track her phone. And they said they couldn't track it for me, either, without that software installed. They said they had no way to use the built-in GPS of the phone without that software. But, I asked, how does law enforcement track a cell phone? They had no answer.
The good news is she called us 2-1/2 hours later to say she had been taking a test (it was a surprise to her that they had the test that day, it seems), and that she wasn't allowed to use her cell phone during a test. Of course, we discussed how this was going to change the next time she was delayed for any reason.
But my point is that in the interests of privacy, children are also being granted these same privacy rights from their parents. As a concerned parent, I want to know where my children are. But I have no such "right".
Another example is college. The college happily allows me to pay my child's college bill, but I can't see any communication between them and the college. I can't even get their grades - I have to get their grades from my kids.
When the Columbine kids went nuts, people asked "didn't you know what your kid was doing?" But in the interest of the kid's "privacy", they didn't even go into his room.
There needs to be stronger parental rights. Children, while I'm paying all their bills, are my responsibility. I should have the rights to go along with that responsibility. Always.
Posted by:
Max
10 Mar 2010
Its against to law to ease drop listening to others. How can you sell something that against the law?
Posted by:
Jessie
11 Mar 2010
I just had my i pod touch stolen. Though it is not a cell phone it does have internet and GPS. Is it still possible to track and how?
Posted by:
Don
12 Mar 2010
Am I interested in the location of my 35 year old son and daughter in law who rarely leave town? NO. If they were travelling on vacation... maybe. What if they went down over an embankment and couldn't be found, or got stuck in a snow storm?
Would I be interested in my 17 year old son's location? Probably. I used to just pop in at dances and such just to let them know that I was doing my job.
As I get older, I wouldn't mind if my family could track me and my wife. Alzheimer's is real.
I would NOT track my employees. Results tell me what I want to know.
Posted by:
Cindi
12 Mar 2010
Providing services for victims of domestic violence we have to be very careful for savvy tech users who utilize tracking to stalk, manipulate, threaten and control their victims. Technology can be used for the good and we need to make sure we are educating everyone about this technology and how they can use it to protect themselves.
Posted by:
Thomas
13 Mar 2010
I use my personal cell at work. I 'knew' that I had lost it there! What I had forgotten is that my swivel clip was loose.
I hadn't left it at work, I lost it when my five Jack Russell Terriers greeted me at the back door and 'jumped' me.
The swivel being loose, I didn't realize the phone was missing until later.
Luckily, all three phones had a family locate service that help find my phone, flip open, within 14 yards of the location. (Right by my back fence. Not chewed, either. I guess that the dogs didn't want to dial out!)
Posted by:
PSK
13 Mar 2010
can some1 help me?
i really didnt understand if any of these apps allow us to track our lost cell phone via our own computer. help?