Anyone not tracked via their phone?

[Bighouseinthecountry25]

As far as I know I can't be location tracked. DH and I can't track each other and I have Snapchat to keep an eye on my teens but I don't share my location. I don't have a particularly exciting life but I like to be under the radar. Surely I'm not the only one as it seems to be the norm. We all have androids as well so no fine my phone iPhone thing.

I have location services disabled. Hate the idea of it.

Shut up!! Burner phone for MN. That’s the best thing ever 🤣

I usually have my location turned off, though it's more about saving battery than anything else.

DH and I rarely share our locations with each other. We are with each other most of the time that he's not at work. I am confident that he's at work when he says he is! We have an adult DS who spends the majority of time in his room and see no need to track him. We've never had any situation where we wished we had shared locations, no one has ever gone missing suddenly or anything.

We have tracking on between DC, DH and me. Not a chance in hell they're having snapchat though!

I think it depends on your phone with Google, DH's Android phone seems to be run by Google but if you have an iPhone then Google won't necessarily be tracking you, depends on your settings. Obviously if you have a Gmail account you are part of Google anyway

Although lots of people use things like Life360 as a useful tool, I think tracking contributes to an erosion of privacy and boundaries. I don’t track teenager DD because I don’t want it to become normalised to her that someone can track her movements. I don’t want her to think it’s acceptable in future relationships.

Stalking by partners is a really common form of coercive control and abuse, and it’s going to be much more difficult for young people to resist it/ draw boundaries when they’ve been tracked by parents in their childhood

Loving all the points of view, seems like a wide variety of viewpoints. My teens don't have my location as they have never asked for it. I very rarely check where they are and it's normally just to check they've arrived somewhere safely.

Tracking has already become normalised across teens though. Snapchat has done that. They all like to see where each other are. Looking at the map on my teen’s Snapchat is insane. There of hundreds of dots and she can see where everyone she knows is. It’s mental.

We went to quite a random country for the Easter break. Quite off the beaten track. The first thing my eldest did when we got there was look to see if she knew anyone else also holidaying in the country on Snapchat. There were 3 people there! So she met up with 1 of them whilst we were there.

Same. DDs go on holiday, see who’s around and meet up with friends from primary school! It’s quite lovely.

I find it weird that people feel the need to track their significant others. My DH travels all round the country doing about 30k miles a year so he could be anywhere. I have enough on my plate without concerning myself with a grown ups wellbeing too.

that said - I do send my location on WhatsApp when I do long runs - but because I’m a lone running female.

I find it terrifying that our teenagers are so blase about their personal safety. Do they really trust all these "friends"?

@TheNightingalesStarling agree and it gets so complicated too. As they get older the Snapmaps go on and off depending on where they are, so that they aren't necessarily "seen" to be in certain places at certain times by certain people. Then they start having relationships and it seems to become a tool for coercive control or at the very least questioning about whereabouts.

The two examples about meeting up with friends on holiday sounds really sweet and lovely but the other side of being constantly viewable is much less nice.

We all have find my friends.

I live in an absolute shithole of a place and walk my dog alone in the woods. I like to think that if I didn’t make it home one day, dh could track my phone to find me.

He could track the dog off her tag too.

I’d rather be tracked by my family for safety reasons, than unknown companies that then sell that data, I travel alone & I know it give my dd peace of mind, don’t see anything wrong in that. She can log where I am and know I’m back at my digs

loyalty cards from supermarkets, banks, apps, Google, TikTok, timu all track & use our data

social media is the worse tracker, and they know more about your habits, likes and dislikes than your friends

Tracking has already become normalised across teens though. Snapchat has done that. They all like to see where each other are. Looking at the map on my teen’s Snapchat is insane. There of hundreds of dots and she can see where everyone she knows is. It’s mental.

It's mental that folks haven't made disabling snap maps a condition of having Snapchat.

None of my older kids have snapmaps on nor any of their friends. They're all aware how dangerous

That said the HT of our local school has a husband who works for CEOPS and he gives two talks locally every year - one to the kids at the high school, and one to the parents of the kids about to go to high school.

Even the most blasé of folks end up taking things a bit more seriously after listening to him. I wish that was standard in schools.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cariff-crash-victims-eve-smith-rafel-jeanne-darcy-ross-south-wales-police-b1066398.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-38573790

this may give you insight as to why my dd felt the need to track me

Do you mean YOU track your DD or vice versa?

I did say “significant others”

there’s always going to be the exception - but the chances of being lost for two days following a car crash and so insignificant. I would be surprised if none of those people had find my iPhone or some sort of tracker via their phones had someone attempted to do so?

Definitely don't track each other in this family. I've got friends who track their household though. I was astounded one day when I was out shopping with a friend and her adult daughter messaged her and asked "what are you doing in M&S?" He'll would freeze over before I would be allowing someone in my family to track my movements to that extent.
We don't have a Ring type doorbell either. We are all free to come and go as we please without being checked up on.

Dd tracks me

significant others, which group of people are included in the others?

I gave two examples as to why dd tracks me as you didn’t understand why this would happen- if that doesn’t make sense to you after explaining- then you’ll have to stay without that understanding

Im not clear why you are attacking me - I literally said I send my WhatsApp location when I go running, so I’m not saying theres never a circumstance when you track someone.

I take significant other to be a partner/husband, which is the normal meaning of the term.

I don’t think it’s me who’s lacking in understanding 🤔

I have absolutely no issues with being tracked. I'm in a 360 circle with some close friends and a separate one with my DH.
I find it oddly comforting.

I’m single but share my location with my teen son (who couldn’t share less where I am 🤣) in case I ever lose my phone or in case of emergency.

hubby, two teens and myself all have each other on find my iphone. toddler has an apple tag. sometimes it’s just easier to see where someone is to get the tea on. or know where to fetch them from without having to call. we aren’t constantly looking at each others locations

my brother in law had a heart attack on the road and we didn’t know he was dead until 3 days later because police didn’t bother to inform anyone. we only found him with his phone which was thankfully still findable.

it was awful and nobody ever explained why family weren’t told. my nephew was even at the home address

MY Dh and I have our youngest (13) on Life360 and, by default, each other. I am generally vehemently private but I wanted to be able to have the reassurance of knowing where my child was while she enjoys more freedom as she gets older, and I thought I'd disable my location fairly quickly. To be honest, I forget I have it and am completely unbothered by my DH and Dc being able to see where I am. What I wouldn't do is feel the need to explain to either of them if they questioned it (which they wouldn't). Plus it's handy for my DH to know when to get the kettle on or start dinner!