AT&T launches FamilyMap service, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

I understand the “Big Brother” rant but there is a flip side, What if you were in trouble, what if you (or yours) were missing? Forget finding you stupid phone, what if they were trying to find YOU.

$10 seems about right for a simple tracking program. If you want it for free, you write it.

While remote gps turn-on is possible, power on is not. Also cell triangulation is very inaccurate anywhere lacking a high density tower array.

yeah this really is a great service, it got my ex put in jail for 8 months because he used the service from sprint on my own account when he wasnt even on it to stalk me for over a year. That year was hell for me and my son. It would be agreat service if people were actually going to just use it for good but you have to understand that people will always find shady uses for everything.

I have a great fix…. Turn off your phone!

Pro’s and Con’s:

We’re taking a 2-week Euro-trip and I thought this would be a great safety measure for my 6-yr old: my wife or I toss a phone in her backpack and if we get separated we can find the other. Too bad it only works in AT&T coverage area (not even in the far-off country of Canada.)

My wife wasn’t sure where she was at in relation to where she wanted to go and called me to ask how to get to a particular address. Too bad the accuracy at the moment was a 6.6-mile radius.

My wife was trying to find her mom and sister who live down-state (still in the AT&T coverage area) but neither phone showed up on the map.

So, the service is spotty and about as accurate as the iPhone ‘location services’ when there is no GPS signal (using cell-ID/triangulation) which is to say, ‘not very.’

I would like to use this and have it be much more accurate. Unlike some of the more paranoid people out there, we have a pretty good and honest family relationship so neither of us even think to use this for spying. I’d suggest that is the source of some problems for others.

Also, currently, with the accuracy that I’ve seen of no better than a half-mile radius, if you are trying to determine the exact location of a handset, good luck. If I was a kid, I’d tell my parents to go ahead and track me knowing that all I have to do is give them an address in the neighborhood and I’m gold. Even if a parent uses their scheduled reporting service, there’s no way to tell if your kid made it home after school or is 5-doors down at the neighbor’s/girlfriend/crack-dealer’s pad.

It is not about trusting your kids. Our 8th grader is on a trip to DC. We know that she arrived safely. She can track us as easily as we can track her because she has the password to the account. If we had this service two years ago, we would not have had a cell phone stolen. And it gives considerable peace of mind to parents who worry about abductions from ex-spouses or the guy in the green car that attempted to abduct a girl who rides the bus home with my daughter.

For us, the key is that we shared the password info and can be tracked by our daughter. The drawback is the cost – we won’t continue after the free trial period because AT&T said it will cost us $45 per month to have shared tracking. Would get it in a heartbeat at $10 per month for us all!

I have two kids getting up in cell phone age my wife and I am divorcing……… I think this is GREAT so I know where my boys are. It will give me a piece of mind.

oh well .. i pay the bill so i can know where you are .. dont like it? buy your own phone and pay for the bill or put a roof over your own head.

My teenage boy has just begun to drive. Even though I ask him to call me when he arrives somewhere safely…being a teenage boy, he often doesnt LOL. He has made many trips of 150 miles and more this summer, and I have had peace of mind knowing he has gotten to his destination. If i didn’t trust him, he wouldnt be going so far away, and wouldn’t be driving…but I know he has made it and that’s all I need. This services can be abused by overzealous parents, but if not this, then they will find other ways to obsess. I am not that parent..I just sleep better knowing he’s not lost or worse for the moment. It’s one less thing.

does it show the actual adress you are at?

Just start using the familymap, it does not work well at all. It will be pretty scary for parents to locate the child and see on the map is in a bushes some where 3 miles away.
Very scary to see that and guess why your child is 3 miles away from school. Totally useless.

BETTER THAN NOTHING. NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.
GLOBAL TRACKING GROUP BETTER AT LOCATING
BUT NOT NEAR AS ECONOMICAL. USE GLOBAL
TRACKING ON CAR AND FAMILY MAP ON PHONE AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE AT YOUR DISPOSAL TO ASSURE OR TRY TO ASSURE THE
SAFETY OF YOUR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS. ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH POOR JUDGEMENT AND INEXPERIENCE. USE COMMON SENSE AND
GOOD PERSONAL JUDGEMENT WHEN USING THE SEARCHES. HAVE BACK UP AND VERIFY BEFORE GOING BANANA CAKES!

I LOVE the family map system. It does not just send the initial notification, it sends random texts occasionally reminding them they can be tracked. I agree with another response…don’t like it? Buy your own phone, get your own plan…I love this because my 18 year old has just started taking roadtrips with her friends and I can map her if she goes missing. The furthest it has ever shown her is “is within 1 mile” of this spot. Still alot better than no idea where she is.

I love it~!

I just started my 30 day trial. I agree with those of you who said, “if you don’t want to be tracked, pay your own phone bill” It’s that simple.
About the service. I have 5 phones on my account. One of them is dead on, and when I say dead on, I mean it shows my houses rooftop and pin points on the exact room that the phone is in. The one that is dead on is the Samsung Impression A877. If they were all like that, this service would be great, unfortunately 3 other phones on my account are repeatedly 1 to 2 miles off, every time.. and worse yet, my the 5th phone “My iPhone 3gs” which should be the most accurate, is consistently up to 4 miles off; and yes the GPS is enabled in the settings.

So there you have it, that’s my experience so far, hope this helps.

It is a great feature for worry parents. When your children are still out at 11pm you need to know where they are, just for their safety sake.

If you do nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, you don’t mind your family knowing where you are.

How can a stranger get on it to track anyone? I thought only the account owners/payers can track the lines they pay for.