Sprint Family Locator
Sprint has launched a new service called Sprint Family Locator. The service allows parents to locate their child on a map through either an internet site or through their phone.
“Sprint Family Locator is a valuable tool that can help parents and guardians have a better sense of their children’s whereabouts when they’re apart,” said Danny Bowman, vice president of product marketing for Sprint. “This is the latest Sprint innovation that uses GPS technology to improve the way families connect, communicate and locate one another.”
Sprint Family Locator requires parents to list up to four phones they want to be able to locate. Registration requires activation on both the “parent” phones as well as the child phones. When a parent wants to find a child, the child can be located on a map along with a street address and surrounding landmarks.
One feature that I think is pretty cool about Sprint Family Locator is that the child is notified by text message whenever a parent is snooping on them. A geofence (actually the exact opposite of a geofence) can be setup to notify parents when a child arrives at a specified location. Reports can also be generated from the internet site.
Spring will charge $10 per month for the Sprint Family Locator and you can register up to four phones and dispatch 100 text messages to each child phone per month. The service to locate someone else is currently available on 17 phones while there are 30 GPS enabled phones which can be located through the Sprint Family Locator service.
While I can see the valid uses of this technology. The technology is quite amazing. I have some pause in unfettered enthusiastic support for the product. My paranoia quickly ran into overdrive with thoughts of an overenthusiastic government tracking me, or worse my wife keeping tack on me or perhaps my boss wanting to know just what I am up to and just where I am when he is paying me.
Now I know that I am being paranoid here, as the government would not breach my right of privacy with this technology, umm wait on, did they not just install a monitoring office in a phone company, are they not doing this already. I guess the government is doing it so that pipe dream of freedom just bit the dust, but I know my partner would not do it, umm, maybe. My boss I know would, the only thing stopping him is his tightwad attitude, he may do the math and find that it is cheaper just to pay me rather than pay extra to find me.
Loven it! I totally agree!
Many technological advances are a double edged sword. Just like the advent of video cameras. The technology can be used for good… or to spy on people. We can only hope people use the technology responsibly.
We’ve already seen both sides of this issue with GPS technology. There have ben court cases of people tracking their spouses with GPS technology. We’ve also seen cases where people have been in vehicle accidents and were unable to tell 911 operators where they were. GPS coordinates were obtained from the caller’s phone and lives have been saved. (You can read a little about this here.)
Most phones with built in GPS technology have a way where you can dictate when that information is sent. Most have an option where you can specify that your coordinates are only sent when calling emergency numbers.
Thanks for the comments.
The technology is quite amazing and I like it.
Well, I think it’s scary. Imagine your employer using this technology…
I found this article while searching for ways to possibly track smallish children on class field trips or similar (just speculation for now, but it may be implemented in the future). This isn’t quite the technology we’re thinking about, but we’re getting close.
This is obviously no substitute for proper adult supervision, but a child that wanders off outside (or is kidnapped!) could be located more quickly.
As for the “big brother employer” comments, are you people saying you routinely make your employer PAY you to run personal errands or generally goof off?? You’ve obviously never hired someone who worked directly for you on an hourly basis… imagine paying a plumber or mechanic $75/hour while he surfs the internet or runs down to a local bar for a quick drink.
can you say stalker?
Amen! I think that people who use this to track down someone is really kindof insane. Definetely STALKER! If someone wants you to know where they are…they will tell you. And in the end…the person knows you stalked them in the first place.
I agree this technology has its good and bad sides. The good side, as mentioned, is that u can locate children, or whoevers using your phone. Imagine your phone got stolen … what then? voila — GPS locates it and the police can bag em right there. Employers know their tracking rights extend to the job, and thats it. Its still scary knowing you can be found, but as long as u aint in the red light district, whats to worry about?
My family has the service and it’s great for keeping up with our kids. Don’t worry about your boss tracking you down… it only works with phones on your account.
I tried this service as a sprint customer and it did not work. For example, I am in Miami and the system said I was in Kansas. After turning off and on my phone I tried again and then it located me in Miami Beach, like 7 miles from work, which is were I really was. Thumbs down on this service, however excellent concept.
Do this technology work if cell phone is turn off?
No.
Im totally going to track my boyfriend. The only thing that sucks is it sends reminders to that person that they are being spyed on… So i dont know if i should do it or not. But i think he is lying about where he is while im at home taking care of the baby. well see wont we?
Two days ago at 10:30pm I was frantically looking for my Sprint cellular telephone. I knew that I had left it at full volume, so if it was in my house I would have definetly heard it. It was dark outside, and around seven o’clock I was biking around.
So, I took another cell phone, and continously called it while biking in the hopes of seeing it light up, or hearing it.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find. When I got back to my house I was unable to find it, which made me angry. I sat down at my computer, and just checked my emails not really knowing what to do.
In a few minutes I remembered that sprint is offering a promotion where you can, access Sprint Family Locator. I immediatly signed up, and accessed it from my computer. It began loading.
In less than a minute it was showing a dot on a map, exactly where my phone was. I thought that the roads around the dot were something near to me, but I soon realized that they definetly where not.
These roads were in the town next to me, in a trailor park. . . . .
I know knew that either my phone was stolen, or taken. Maybe they were planning on giving it back to me the next day.
Anyway, the next morning I drove to that house. Knocked on the door a few times. No answer.. another time… no answer. On the window next to the door they were selling their trailor, and so a number was listed there.
I called that, and immediatly got a hold of a woman that had a very hard time speaking english. She handed the phone over to her son. I asked about my phone. He respded with a positive answer. He had my phone.
When I got it back he told me that he would have returned it, and I gave him a $20.00 reward. Without the sprint GPS locator I probally would never have gotten my phone back.
I think it was unlikely that he was going to return it, because i called 51 times, and he never answered it. I was sending text messages to the phone telling him that I need my phone back.
So, I love Sprint GPS locator, and without it I would never have found my cell phone. Which by the way was a LG Rumor2.