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VERIZON offers this too: Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:34:44 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: "Peter Jensen" <peter () peterjensen com> Date: April 15, 2009 2:44:24 PM EDT To: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>Subject: Re: [IP] VERIZON offers this too: Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service
I was purchasing a new phone at a Verizon store two days ago, and overheard the salesman offering this tracking (i.e. stalking) service toa customer. A "Parent" and "Child" phone are set up and initialized that way.
Called "FamilyMap" ( http://www.att.com/familymap ), the service allows the account owner to track the location of other cell phones in the account over the Internet or on their own cell phones. While this concept isn't particularly new, the manner of implementation that AT&T has chosen for this service is quite alarming. Rather than following the conventional procedure of requiring confirmation from a cell phone that its user wishes to permit tracking, FamilyMap allows for the activation of tracking based solely at the discretion of the account owner.
From what I overheard, the Verizon phones do not require any further permission to be used in this manner. That is specifically what the salesman was offering the customer. Peter Jensen ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- VERIZON offers this too: Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service David Farber (Apr 15)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: VERIZON offers this too: Warning: AT&T's New "Spouse Stalking" Cell Service David Farber (Apr 16)