Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to 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 day ago by throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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