Or, "hey we've been doing this for the police and gov't for free and we have the tech so why not sell it?"
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Privacy
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OP does not know about Life360.
At least the other has to install it of their own will
The sort of thing that'd be really fucking useful, anywhere in the last twenty years - if it was built by privacy nerds. If I'm out with people at a mall or whatever, we should be able to exchange GPS coordinates once per second, using approximately zero percent of any modern server.
But it should be extremely opt-in. Like not even an option to turn on and leave on. And if any fucking brand ever sees that data, the person responsible can track my phone's trajectory through their front window.
I have been thinking about how or if I would track my own children. I do not have any at the moment though.
I think the only system that would work with tracking and still be ethical is a system with accountability.
They need to know that I would never check unless there was an emergency. So we'd have to have some sort of immutable log that they can check regularly. So they know if I checked their location. It should not be like a panopticon. in which they don't know if the parent is checking their location or not. That changes behaviour. Even with the trust that I would not check, just me having the option would alter behaviour probably.
Youth and kids are independent individuals with their own rights to privacy, autonomy, right to select their own friends and acquaintences, right to freedom of expression and movement, right to make mistakes, etc. If they are thought right and have a high trust bond with their parents, preferably with little judgement, then it will probably be fine and most issues can be solved.
I share my location with my wife just in case I end up in a ditch dying while riding my motorcycle.
I have very mixed feelings about androids crash detection. The personal privacy is fine but - fucking google.
Didn't know there existed a crash detection function. I just share my location to her all the time. She does the same. Yeah I agree but I rather let my wife relax than not knowing. My point is that not all loses of privacy have to be bad.
Especially since you can selfhost the server for location sharing!
You supposedly hate Google, yet have an android... The fuck is wrong with you?
There are several major degoogled Android projects, while Linux on phones is nowhere near mature enough for mainstream use yet.
De-googled projects get none of the benefit of being android, while all of the downfall of being android. So either use it or don't. It simply doesn't make any sense.
It's like buying a Tesla and then replacing all of the systems within it because you hate Tesla. Like, wtf. Why would you buy it then? End of the day its your money, do what you want, but still. What the fuck.
get none of the benefit of being android
As someone who uses Graphene... No? It gets the benefit of being usable as a daily driver and having tons of apps. What exact perks are you talking about? You overestimate the benefit Google gives to the OS' user.
Google Play Services is at the very core of Android and it will only get worse from here, and a very significant portion of the Android ecosystem requires GPS to function. Auto updates, built-in Android security features, a significant portion of secure apps like banking and financial service applications, Find my Phone, Cloud Backups, etc. The list goes on. And it's funny because each one of these removed features are generally replaced with a third party alternative, which means you're still trusting a third party with your data... I could understand if you didn't want any company to have your data. That makes sense. But you specifically curtail Google who authors the OS in favor of a third party who also might be doing the same things with your data anyways. It's all just so incredibly stupid.
You may be completely happy with Graphene, but the overwhelming vast majority of people won't be because it removes the specific advantages of using Android as an ecosystem.
If you want to be free of Google, then be free of Google and don't use hardware and an OS that they designed and made. It's like hating Nazi's but wearing an SS jacket because "it's warm." It's fuckin' mind-blindingly crazy.
I'm totally on engineeringgamings side. Both apple and Google are both bad companies imo but the Android operating system is probably the best thing Google has made and you have the ability to use it without any of the Google services.
I take advantage of side loading on a daily basis with repository's like f droid and accresent as well as obtanium for installing apps from the source. And for the few apps I need i can use the aurora store all with never signing in with a google account.
For me the main feature of Android is side loading and I can take full advantage of that with no google account. In my opinion the idea of an ecosystem is a negative, i want the ability to not be locked in to any specific hardware or software vendor.
and a very significant portion of the Android ecosystem requires GPS to function
Which ones? Not encountered that except for maps.
Auto updates, built-in Android security features
At least Graphene does auto-updates of the system and basic apps just fine, and when it comes to installed apps - you can use F-Droid, Obtainium and other methods that can do it as well.
a significant portion of secure apps like banking and financial service applications
Yeah, those are often blocked off indeed. Although this depends too - for example, in my country all the major banks aside from one don't require Google services, primarily to accommodate Huawei and other Chinaphones that come without Google services. Find My Phone - indeed, although there might still be workarounds, just not looked at that.
And itβs funny because each one of these removed features are generally replaced with a third party alternative, which means youβre still trusting a third party with your dataβ¦
Thing is - you have CHOICE in what third party to trust. And a lot of such choices are indeed more trustworthy than Google judging by prior history. You can eliminate middlemen, such as getting apps directly from the devs' repos rather than from F-Droid. Oftentimes you can avoid a third-party entirely, as a lot of things are selfhostable.
You may be completely happy with Graphene, but the overwhelming vast majority of people wonβt be because it removes the specific advantages of using Android as an ecosystem.
That's not the same argument as you made previously - "De-googled projects get none of the benefit of being android, while all of the downfall of being android". Removing Google does still leave a convenient daily driver - whether it's suitable universally is another question.
This is going to get DV victims killed. At least on phone tracking like iPhone's family sharing makes it clear it's happening and often has a way of disabling it when you make your final run for it allowing you to keep your phone.
Your toxic partner: "What were you doing at that cafe at 5:42 PM"
This is a useful feature. If you are in an abusive household, then yes you should have as much financial separation as possible. For those that are in a happy and functional family with kids that you want to allow freedom for, this provides a measure of safety if you need it for potential emergency's or if they aren't answering the phone or whatever.
If you are in a healthy relationship, you can do this voluntarily and for free using functionality built into the OS or third party apps, without paying your network operator $10/mo
Agreed. My wife and I are both on iOS so there is no need for this feature. Our daughter when she is old enough for a cellphone, would be the one I'd use this for since she can't turn it off.
then yes you should have as much financial separation as possible.
Yeah that's a thing people in abusive households frequently have.
This is a problem even without this. The account owner can get lists of all outbound calls of their victim's line if they share a plan.
The fcc requires some remediation if a domestic abuse order is submitted but obviously that's at the far end of the abuse cycle.
The issue here can be traced all the way to phone companies pushing the very concept of family plans because it makes churn more difficult.
An abuser can shut off their victim's phone line on a whim with convenient online interfaces.
Phone companies don't treat their customers will respect because their is no requirement. No one of adult age should be subjected to any of these controls simply because someone else pays.
The health industry has rules around this. The moment a child hits 18, their claims disappear and the parent loses access to medical records.
There is absolutely no reason phones should not have the same restrictions but the industry lacks the will and will until the fcc or other three letter agency forces the issue.
Not a new thing, and I can definitely see good uses for this information. What they should have done is made it so that the one being tracked gets a log and real time notification any time someone is tracking them. This would alleviate some of the toxic spying behavior simply by making it transparent rather than covert.
Daylight robbery... Who's still this mentally deprived to get another subscription based anything?
If you want to install free tracking tools, you'll need consent or try to guess the lockscreen password to try to install it covertly.
With this, its doesn't require consent, since most families are on the same family plan.
Only abusers would use this, since a normal person who actually cares about a family member's safety would just ask them to install a tracking app voluntarily and be transparent about it.
Its tracking either way, but doing so voluntarily is way less creepy and also free.
Most modern Android and iOS allows you to share your locations for free via Google and Apple "Find My Phone" networks.
Mmm I can see absolutely no way where they misuse this information
This isn't new, cell tower triangulation is a fact of the network operation and is part of how your signal gets handed off between towers as you travel. Airplane wouldn't do anything unless it where to actually disable the sim entirely, and functionally even that doesn't cut it in the USA given that a device without one can still connect to emergency services via any tower in reach.
This is just the carrier giving a customer the data that would already exist, for a price, which I thought T-Mo actually used to give for free...
The carrier can track a phone without sim card but it's not the case if you turn on airplane mode. The whole point of airplane mode is to prevent the phone from emitting any signal to avoid interference with critical aircraft instruments. I don't see any company risking to circumvent such a critical security feature, it would be easily verifiable.
Find My and Google's device locator service exist, they're free and work without a carrier. Ik they're not that private, but you save money at least and they're more private than your carrier.
/s
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No Consent??
I'm sure that the "consent" is part of the terms and conditions when you sign up for a line on a family plan. Not that it's genuinely informed consent, or that people know what they agreed to, but technically...
Consent coming from those, that did not sign Tte contract obviously...
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