Free Cell Phone Tracking - Best Cell Phone Tracker Apps

You won't believe how easy it is to track a cell phone location with from the Internet. Today I will be teaching you how. A few years ago the government mandated that all cell phone manufacturers install GPS receivers in the new cell phones that they make. This was in response to a request from emergency operators around the world who complained that many callers would call in from their cell phones but be unable to give their location.

Oftentimes people who call 911 are injured and disoriented and cannot give their exact location. If you call 911 from your home phone, the caller ID feature that is provided from telephone company will automatically give your name and address to the 911 emergency operator.

If people called 911 from their cell phones, this information was not available to the emergency opperators. Many people died because emergency opperators were not able to send help to them in time.

Cell phone manufacturers installed GPS receivers into their cell phones and now there is a feature called enhanced 911 that enables emergency opperators to instantly see the location of the caller even if they call in on their cell phone

It didn't take long for people to figure out other uses for the GPS receivers in cell phones. One of these uses is free cell phone tracking.

There are several free cell phone tracking services available but today we'll be talking about just one of them. In 2009 Google launched a service called Google Latitude. Google already had a wildly popular service called Google maps that many people around the world were already using. (Update: This app is no longer available.)

The engineers at Google realized that since cell phones were already equipped with GPS receivers, they could use their already popular Google Maps service and create a free cell phone tracking service.

They put their noses to the grindstone and came up with a very cool application called Google Latitude. Google Latitude is similar to Facebook in Myspace in that it is a social networking service but instead of simply seeing photographs and status updates, when you use the Google Latitude app, you see the exact location of the people in your friends list on a map on a cell phone or computer screen.

With Google Latitude installed on your cell phone, you can simply look at your cell phone's screen and see the location of the people who are in your Google Latitude friends list.

In order to be able to use the Google Latitude free cell phone tracking application, you need to have a programmable smart phone.  When Google first launch this service, there were only a couple of phones that were supported by it but now there are several.  Here is a list of the current mobile devices that are supported by the Google Latitude free cell phone tracking application.

• iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch  - These Apple mobile devices will work as long as the iPhone 3.0 operating system is installed on them.
• Windows Mobile 5.0 mobile devices
• Symbian S60 mobile devices
• Some Sony Ericcson cell phones - If Google Maps 3.0 is installed on your Sony Ericcson phone, Google Latitude will work on it.  If it is not, you may be able to install it by updating  your firmware from the manufactures website.
• Google Adroid Powered mobile devices
• Most Color BlackBerrys

If your cell phone isn't in the list of supported devices, check back with the Google Latitude website frequently because chances are that it will be added to the list soon.

In order to set up and use Google Latitude free cell phone tracking application on your cell phone,  you first need too download and install the application.  You can get the application for free from the Google Latitude website.

After installing the application on your phone, you need to sign up for a free to Gmail account if you don't already have one.  Gmail is Google's version of Yahoo mail.  Anyone who is going to use the Google Latitude application must have a Gmail account.

Next you want to tell all your friends about the Google Latitude application and have them download and install the app and sign up for Gmail so that you can add them to your friends list.  The only people who you will be able to track and we'll be able to track you are those that are in your friends list.

Next you should send a friend requests from the Google Latitude application to your friends who have Gmail and Google Latitude installed.  Once they accept your friend request you will be able to locate them with your cell phone or Internet connected computer and they will be able to locate you as well.

You'll actually see a small picture icon of your friend overlaid on a Google Map on your cell phone's screen.  If you click on the picture an icon, you will see that your friends exact street address as well as other personal information about them this is in your contacts list.

Google realized that there would be some concerns about privacy when it comes to the ability to track someone with their cell phone.  In anticipation of these concerns, they built several privacy settings into the application for you to use at your convenience.

The first privacy setting is the ability to hide from an individual friend.  If you select this privacy setting the particular friend will not be able to locate you with the Google Latitude free cell phone tracking application. 

The next privacy setting is show city level info only.  If you choose this privacy setting, the particular friend in which you set the privacy setting for will only be able to tell that you are in a particular city. They will not be able to see your exact location.

The next setting isn't really a privacy setting but it is good to know about.  This setting is the remove setting.  If you choose this, the particular friend will be removed from your Google Latitude friends list and you no longer will be able to track them and they no longer will be able to track you.  The only way to reverse this is to send them another friends request or for them to send you another friends request and either one of you accept the request.

The next privacy setting is a global setting that applies to all the friends in your Google Latitude friends last.  It is called hide my location.  If you choose this setting, you will not be visible on the Google Latitude application to anyone in your friends list.

There may be occasions when you choose to enabled privacy settings for particular friends or for all your friends but you only want the settings to be active for a particular afternoon or weekend.  It's important that you remember that if you enable any privacy settings that you intend to only be temporary that you go back in and change the settings manually when you are willing to be able to be located by the Google Latitude application.

Here's a short video from Google about how the Google Latitude free cell phone tracking application used to work that you might enjoy watching.

Never use a cell phone tracker app to track someone without their permission or knowledge!

Don't use this software or any other form of technology for the purposes of the invasion of anyone's privacy!