How to track a missing person through a smartphone app

Want to track someone through their smartphone? Maybe to ensure that your acquaintance or family member is safe? Or what if your mobile phone is stolen? Well, tracking it down is possible.

Security agencies and the police can do it very easily by contacting the mobile network the other party is using. However, service providers will not oblige ordinary citizens in tracking someone else.

However, there are apps that allow one to do that.

On iOS devices, there is a feature called Find My Phone. For Android phones, it is Find Your Phone. These apps that let the user find a missing smartphone.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number can be used to track another cellphone.

PhoneSpector is an Android/ iOS app that will automatically and remotely gather information from any cellphone and send it to your account on the their website using IMEI. On logging in from any internet-enabled device, texts, calls, GPS location and a whole lot of personal information can be obtained.

Life360’s Family Locator is an Android and GPS-based app that lets one stay connected to their dear ones. However, the catch is that a private group has to be created and people who matter have to be in the group. This app gives real-time location of members in the circle. This app can also help locate lost phones. This is a free app.

Spyzie is a paid app (Android/ iOS) that can track locations and spy on other devices. Social media accounts can also be monitored with this app, but the app has to be on the target phone as well.

While some apps are free, others will have to be bought.

We would expect that a cellphone can be tracked only if GPS, location services or Wi-Fi are on. A research in Princeton University last year claimed that phones can be tracked even if they are off.

The research said that a device can be tracked with data that includes its time zone and information of sensors. This data, in conjunction with information from maps and device location, can be used to estimate a device’s location even if location services is off. Gathering data of a target phone is almost undetectable, the research also said.

Android is an open source software and anyone with a bit of coding and programming knowledge could easily track down a phone. Such is the bane of free modern technology.

With the amount of information and technology that is being collected by a lot of companies, it is becoming virtually impossible to stay totally undetected. In this, there are hundreds of apps and methods one can use to detect other devices very easily.