How to Track a Cell Phone - Comments Page 1

I just read and I liked this article! Thank you for the information.

You mentioned, in your opening paragraph, my reason for taking advantage of the ability to track a cell phone ... as an anxious parent. I do not know the addresses or phone numbers of many of my daughter's friends. If something were to happen to her, if her car broke down, etc., I would have no idea of which direction to go to begin looking for her. Any of these programs will eliminate that worry!

Thanks!

With Windows Phone use their Find My Phone feature. See http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp7/basics/find-a-lost-phone

The Find My Friends app for iOS is good for parents that want to locate kids. The restrictions setting in settings allows you to prevent it from being deleted or location services for it being turned off without a password.

Instamapper displays a page that says they shut down last December.

Bob says (and CALIFORNIA folks pay attention here):

"[Do unto others, AND don't be a hypocrite...]In certain places ['me': like CA], there are laws against secretly installing tracker apps on other people's phones." [And breaking some of these types of laws can be VERY serious. Just in case you are tempted -- even for a prank -- think about waking up sometime in the next decade knowing that 'today' will be your last day in prison.].

Also here's something one of the very FEW truly moral lawyers told me once: "If you have to ask the question, you have already crossed the line [of morality and fairness]."

Says me: I think you have the 'right' to own an Abrams M1-A1 Battle Tank and any of the on-board weapon systems with ammo (if you can afford it). BUT YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO TRACK INNOCENT PEOPLE (without their explicit permission in WRITING or a LEGAL Court order from a PUBLIC judge)!

There are LOTS of great uses for tracking devices, and there are even more ways to abuse the technology. If you have to ask, you are probably not making the 'right' decision.

You failed to mention the app "Find Friends" on Apple devices as well as Find my phone.

I enjoy your articles tremendously - you consistently provide very useful information. I am not exactly certain how I stumbled across your newsletters, but I am glad I did. Thanks so much!

Then the battery goes dead...

Why didn't you mention Lookout Mobile Phone Security? It locates a phone on a Google map, can sound an alarm on your phone if you misplace it even with the volume turned off, lets you lock or wipe your phone if it's stolen, AND has a virus scanner. It has a new feature that enables your phone to send a signal when the battery is about to die, so you can find it on a Google map if the power dies completely and it's lost. Most of the features are free. Prey is great for a lost or stolen phone, but Lookout is better for day-to-day locating.

If I was a parent, I would only use tracking to find my daughter when her car broke down. Never to check whether she went to the library like she said. And never to see if she's visiting Brad even though I told her to stay away from him.

And if I were the young woman, I would never thick to call my Dad if my car broke down. Or to turn the phone off when I didn't want to be tracked. And I would know my Dad was only concerned about my safety and not a snooping control freak who does not trust me.

Yes, this could only turn out in the best possible way.

Thanks for the article. You've mentioned some I've never known about. I've been using one you've mentioned before- Lookout, which also is supposed to give some protection against viruses. It has worked well for me, and the other day it sent me an email when my battery was dying (when I didn't even realize it!) It's been very accurate in locating a misplaced phone.

This cellphone tracking article has to be the most damaging piece yet written. There's enough intrusion from other sources. Why make it worse?

Please let me add a small but important point: the wide use of cellphones has attracted attention from people many users seem unaware of--that is, those who use geolocation for their own commercial ends. They range from the relatively benign (the maker of an app that tells you which restaurants are nearby) to the obtrusive (the sender of SMS spam to local consumers) to the downright nefarious, who collect your location and other personal information from your phone with malware and use it or resell it to others for criminal purposes.

One reason I have not traded up from my old Samsung flip-phone is that I can turn off the internal GPS for general purposes but easily turn it on if I'm unlucky enough to need emergency services. (I also don't use it for banking or web browsing.) "Smart" phones are tempting but they're increasingly infested with adware, malware and unpatched security holes.

BTW, Bob, I owe you a lot: I was a complete newbie in 1991 when I discovered your Tourbus and learned what a freelancer needed to know about the Internet to make a go of it. Thank you for starting me off on the right foot!

DJRosen opined, "This cellphone tracking article has to be the most damaging piece yet written."

Really? Every single app Bob mentioned requires the informed consent of the cell phone user ... or it requires a particularly careless cell phone user who would leave their phone unlocked and unattended.

People who frequently leave their phones unlocked and unattended should perhaps consider whether they're responsible enough to handle a cell phone.

I'm not addressing you with that admittedly snide remark, DJRosen. I'm addressing people who frequently leave their phones unlocked and unattended.

We are offering phone tracking software to track the GPS location, it can be used for all smartphones.
http://www.spy-mobile-phone.com/track-mobile-phone-location.html

You said..."have to download and install a Google App on your phone or computer to do this."

I tried to download Google Latitude to my Windows 7 computer and but it seems to be only for smartphones. What am I missing???

EDITOR'S NOTE: On PCs, it's a web based service. Nothing to download.

a Better way is to use http://www.3nus.com/locator, no need to install anything, just enter the other side phone number and send him link in SMS, all he has to do it click on the link, and you'll get his location.

my phone was stolen and i know his number and mine as well. im pretty sure he has a smartphone but mine is not. i need an online program to find this person and my phone. please help with a website or link that will work.

Hi,
How can I use this if the phone is offline?

I am using a free tool downloaded from truspy.net. It can track your phone 24/24 and does not require internet connection nor GPS turn on.
Great tool, indeed.