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.
 |
| From September 3, 2015 |
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:
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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