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GPS Tracking and Smartphones: Your Location Can Be Tracked With Your Phone Number
Can Someone Track My Location By My Phone Number?
The short answer is yes—anyone with your cell phone number can track your GPS location. Hacking is often invisible, so how do you protect yourself?
In the past, tracking someone’s location meant that you had to install a GPS tracker on their vehicle. Now, tracking a cell phone location in real-time with nothing more than a phone number is possible. Find location by number feature is also increasingly becoming more available.
Whether you use an iPhone or Android phone, someone can track you without your knowledge by simply getting you to click a link or download an app. It's not always clear that you're granting permission to share your location data.
In fact, you can find offers all over the internet advertising tracking services. Most major cell phone carriers offer services that allow sharing your location between friends and family members. Some spy apps even draw you in by offering to catch your cheating spouse.
If you value your privacy as much as we do, spyware and tracking apps are cause for concern for data leaks and lack in privacy.
Phone Tracking Apps
Apple's "Find My" app, Google Maps, and the popular tracking apps such as Life360 make it handy for tracking family members. But we have to ask if this technology can cross the line? And can someone track your phone number without your permission? Absolutely.
Beware of companies such as Localize.mobi offering to track the location of both Android and iOS phones for a monthly fee. Here's how it works:
1) The user enters a cell phone number to track on the Localize.mobi website.
2) The site sends a text to the target device with customizable wording and a link.
3) If the target device owner clicks the link, their phone's location appears under "located numbers" on a map.
The sneaky thing about tracking apps like this is that no app or software is required, and the target device owner may not understand that clicking a link allows someone to track them. And just like that, privacy and security are compromised.
In addition to Localize.mobi, there are several other apps that track phone location. Zenly, which serves as a communication platform, has the ability to track phone location with friend requests. Users can even see other phones’ battery levels with Zenly app’s tracking capabilities.
Another phone location tracking app is Gylmpse, which doesn’t require installation or creating an account to use it. Unlike other tracking apps, it allows users to share GPS tracking data with links in real-time. This information can also be posted and shared on social media platforms, which is a concern for lack in privacy, and data leaks.
Is Life360 safe?
While the Life360 tracking app can be helpful for parents watching over their children, particularly teens and new drivers, it also presents security risks.
The Life360 terms of service agreements require ‘permission-based tracking.’ To participate in mobile tracking from someone like your employer, you must respond positively to the text message Life360 sends you before it tracks your location and delivers that data to your tracker.
Using a service like Life360, your family would also have to opt in and give permission to the tracking, or you would opt in on behalf of your minor child. While marketed as an app that promotes family and driver safety, users should be aware that Life360 has been known to sell its user data to third-party companies.
Does Life360 sell your data?
Life360 has stored and sold location information, history, and driving stats to advertisers, insurance companies, and other third parties. Most users were unaware of this until it was exposed online. In January of 2022, Life360 announced that they would stop selling users' location data.
It's up to users to decide if they trust a tracking app with their sensitive personal information. Even if personal data isn't sold,all it takes is one security breach to compromise location data and other private information.
If you're looking to use Life360 to catch your cheating spouse, keep in mind that installing tracking software on the electronic device of a spouse, significant other, or unsuspecting person isn't legal in the US. You could find yourself facing hefty federal fines and imprisonment for doing it.
Cell Phone Tracking by IP Address
Cell phone tracking by IP address is a practice that allows law enforcement and cell phone carriers to identify the physical location of a cellular device. This information is gathered from a user’s IP address, which is assigned to their phone. It provides specific location information based on the network to which their device is connected.
The U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Marshals Service have all relied on cell phone tracking technology of some form to track individuals in investigations like robberies and kidnappings, as well as fugitives who are sought after by law enforcement.
Do Cell Phone Companies Track Cell Phones?
Cell phone companies track the location of their cell phones, but this tracking may not be as precise as that provided by law enforcement. The practice is most often done through the company's IP address system, which periodically logs each device's assigned Internet Protocol (IP) address. IPs are used to identify computers on the Internet and determine where they are located.
Cell phone companies can also track the location of their cell phones through GPS, a technology that identifies the location of devices by sending radio signals to satellites in orbit and mapping the time it takes for these signals to arrive at their destination.
But what happens if this tracking technology falls into the wrong hands? You've got to protect yourself.
How Do I Protect Myself From GPS Tracking?
There are many ways to protect yourself from GPS tracking. Here are our recommendations:
1) Turn off location services.
If you want to protect yourself from GPS tracking, make sure your phone is not connected to any social media apps or online maps. If you're using an older model cell phone and want to avoid being tracked, turn off the GPS function altogether.
2) Use encrypted messaging apps.
The best encrypted instant messaging apps put your privacy and security first. Apps such as Signal and WhatsApp are popular for Android and iPhone users. These messaging apps have powerful encryption software that makes messages unreadable to anyone intercepting them without your permission.
3) Know who has access to your phone.
It's important to know where your phone is at all times and, most importantly, who has it. If someone can physically access your phone, they could install any number of malicious GPS tracking apps. Maintain a secure password or Face ID. Only share passwords with trusted individuals.
4) Keep your phone in a Faraday phone bag.
Utilize a Faraday cage when your phone is not in use. A Faraday cage is a device that is designed to block electromagnetic radiation and radio waves. The cage consists of two or more conducting surfaces that enclose airspace between them.
Putting your phone into a phone bag with Faraday cage instantly cuts off ALL signals to and from your phone. Faraday phone sleeves make tracking impossible so long as it remains inside the sleeve.