My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: How to track any Google Android, Apple iPhone or Samsung smartphone that has GPS and Internet activated

Sunday, September 6, 2015

How to track any Google Android, Apple iPhone or Samsung smartphone that has GPS and Internet activated

After reading through my blog articles on smartphones thus far, it suddenly dawned on me that I have yet another reason to dislike smartphones; Nosy friends peeking over your shoulders into your oversized phablet as illustrated in the video below:


You may known that I dislike smartphones because of the possibility that anyone can track you using your GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) that's built into your smartphone. You can actually turn off this feature as explained in my blog article entitled “The Reason why I don't like Smartphones - Location Privacy and How to disable Location Services on Android and iOS”.

They're also vulnerable to hackers exploiting vulnerabilities such as StageFright, which is related to how Google Android smartphones load video as explained in my blog article entitled “Security Firm Zimperium reveals StageFright Bug - Why Automated Video Playback in @Google @Android is a Hacker's Thermonuclear War”.

Even worse is the Certifi-gate vulnerability that turns your Apps called Remote Support Tool (mRST) Apps that use security certificates common to 90% of all Google Android smartphones into a potential gateway into your smartphones as explained in my blog article entitled “CheckPoint Software Technologies discover Certifi-gate – How to Control an Android Lollipop smartphone and Why fragmentation is at fault”. 

Not to mention being very addictive and are resulting in a decay in human interpersonal interactions, with people seeking to retreat into their smartphones and socialize over Social Media instead of direct human contact as argued in my blog article entitled “How to deal with Smartphone Addiction – Trend towards Wearables indicates Smartphone Addiction getting worse”.

But how do you protect yourself from your friends? First, I'll have to explain how you can track your own smartphone or tablet and how others can potentially track you as well.

How to track any Google Android or Apple iPhone - Preinstalled Apps are your true friends

Turns out the worst hack relates to your own friends, who can easily track your Google Android Smartphone by installing various app on your smartphone as explained in the article “Find your phone with these helpful tracking tips”, published May 15, 2015 By Drew Prindle, DigitalTrends.



Despite this, tracking services are great for locating your smartphone if you've misplaced it or if it has been stolen as explained in my blog article entitled “How smartphones are stolen and IMEI changed – Uninformed Jamaican Police Tracking Jamaicans even as GOJ ID Registration by Telecom Providers needed”. 

If it's a Google Android, Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet, make sure before you've lost your smartphone you've installed at least one of the following free tracking Apps and you have a Data Service activated:

1.      Find My iPhone
2.      Android Device Manager  
4.      Android Lost App
5.      Google Maps Timeline

If for some reason you didn’t install any of these services in your Smartphone, fret not, they're already preinstalled. In the case of smartphones above Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Android Device Manager comes preinstalled and merely requires that you access the Android Devices Manager website.

You can then login using your Google account to use the Android Devices Manager Website to locate any Google Android devices, including your lost Smartphone or Tablet, that are associated with your Google Android account.

How to track any Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb or older smartphones or Apple iPhone 5 - Remote Installation and Google Maps

For Google Android smartphones running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb or older, you'll have to remotely install a tracking app.

This can be done with any app as once your Smartphone has a registered Google Android account as noted in the article “How To Track Your Lost Android Phone Without Installed Tracking App”, published June 14, 2015 By Marc Knoll, Trendblog, you can remotely install any app simply by going to the Google Play website and logging in using your Google Android Account.

Several come to mind, but the best I can think of is Android Lost, which you can remotely install on you lost or stolen Android smartphone. Then you'll have to send an SMS (Short Messaging Service) or text message to your Android smartphone with the words “Androidlost register” to register it remotely using your Google Account credentials.

Once that’s done you can track the location of you Google Android smartphone on the Android Lost website, whether or not the Data Service is activated.

Finally, you can use Google Maps to locate you smartphone even if you smartphone isn’t connected to the Internet and you have NO Data service activated as explained in the article “Use Google Maps to see where you've traveled”, published August 2, 2015 by Sarah Mitroff, CNET News.  

Google Maps, which works with both Google Android and Apple iPhones, keeps a log of everywhere you've ever been.

It then and makes this information available for you to review on Google Maps via a feature called Google Timeline as explained in the article “Google Maps now shows you everywhere you've been”, published July 22, 2015 by Richard Nieva, CNET News.

After all, it’s can easily be a case where you smartphone was misplaced, not necessarily stolen. Logging into Google Timeline will allows you to track the location of the person who stole you smartphone, assuming he doesn’t disable the Data Service or Wi-Fi.

By default it's already enabled but you can use the following procedure to check and even to disable it if you wish:

1.      Sign into your Google account on a computer
2.      Go to the My Account page
3.      Click Personal info & privacy
4.      Scroll to Places you go
5.      If the slider is blue, Location History is on
6.      Click Manage Activity below the slider to view Your Timeline

Apple iPhones from version 5 and newer have Find My iPhone App already installed by default. So locating a lost or stolen Apple iPhones is as simple as logging into Apple iCloud for Desktop.

This is very useful especially if you have served documents there as described in my MICO Wars Blog article entitled “Apple iWorks for iCloud Beta now Free for Windows, Linux OS and Google Chrome OS”.

Once logged in, you can locate you lost or stolen Apple iPhone.

If for some reason you like paying to locate your smartphone or any phone that has GPS for that matter, here are some great paid Apps for both Apple iPhone and Google Android that do the trick:

1.      Prey
2.      Lookout
3.      Avast
4.      AccuTracking

So with all this information, how can you friends track your location?

How your friend can track your location - TSV is the best Defense against your nosy friend

Your friend can gain physical access to your Smartphone or Tablet and install other tracking Apps on your smartphone without your knowledge. If they know you Google Account for your Android smartphone or your Apple iCloud account, they can remotely install tracking Apps on your smartphone.

This making it easy for them to track you and may have been the means by which persons unknown had installed a keylogger onto the Laptop, smartphone or Tablet belonging to Dr. Khia Duncan, as explained in my blog article entitled “The Hacking of Dr Khia Duncan Facebook Page - How to Hack a @Facebook or @Twitter Account and Why TSV is important”. 

In both cases, it's best to enable TSV (Two Step Verification) so as to prevent unauthorized aces both by friends as well as by smartphones thieves as pointed out in my blog article entitled “How to enable Apple iCloud TSV using Apple ID – Apple iCloud Fappening created Hipster Trend of Flip Cellphones, Vinyl Records and Polaroids”.  

This should make it a lot harder for them to track you and avoid ending up like being hacked like Dr. Khia Duncan, whose friend hacked one of her devices and installed a keylogger.

Have fun tracking your smartphone or being tracked by someone else. Sharing is caring so share this with someone you love.

Here’s the link:




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