Parenting Pointers: Tracking Phones

When you have family members or friends who do not mind your knowing their whereabouts, you can make do without using tracking apps to locate them. A simple text message asking them where they are should suffice. However, at times they might not check their phones for several hours, such as during work, or might be untruthful about their location, especially if they are up to something. To deal with that, you can let them install a tracking on their phone so you can remain updated with their whereabouts without having to bother them or relying on their honesty. ‘Find My Friends’ is a popular and free smartphone app that is available for Android and Apple devices. Once you install it in your device, you can add your friends that you would like to share your location with. The app keeps everyone informed of each other’s whereabouts and runs in the background without draining the phone’s battery. It also allows you to keep friends for a limited time, such as travel companions during a journey. The app can even be configured to notify you when a user reaches a certain destination, such as when your kids have reached school or come back home safely.

However, at times you might want to be able to track your kids without letting them know about it, such as in the case of depressed or rebellious teens who are not confiding to you their worries. There are a number of spy apps available for smartphones that can be used to track them without the owner being aware of it. Some of the popular apps meant for this purpose include mSpy, Phonesheriff and Stealthgenie. These apps have monthly or yearly charges, and are available for leading mobile operating systems such as Android, Apple and BlackBerry. Simply download them to your child’s smartphone and install it without letting him/her know. As soon as the app is installed, it will start recording the phone’s incoming and outgoing data, including text and multimedia messages, phone calls, internet browsing history and GPS locations. All this information is uploaded to a secured online server from where you can access it by logging in to your account. The app’s working will remain in the background and be undetectable. All the places where the phone’s owner has been and where he/she currently is will be visible to you. mSpy is a GPS tracking service that can also be used to keep track of your friends’ whereabouts, with a monthly charge of six dollars. It can work for non-smartphones that cannot support the tracking apps mentioned above. However, the phone has to be GPS-enabled for it to work. Get hold of the phone likewise and install mSpy on it, making sure its owner does not get to know. Once it is installed, hide its icon somewhere deep in the phone’s memory, preferably in a random folder that is not likely to be opened by the user.

As for a phone which does not have GPS handyortung, you can go a little out of the way and search for a GPS chip to attach to it without the person knowing. You will have to know the model of the phone and might need to visit several electronic shops before you find the right hardware to serve this purpose.