Android Device Manager

[Ghost]

There is finally a phone tracking device coming out by Google. Initially I thought this was a good thing. You will never lose your phone. A far worse way to look at it is invasion of privacy. How secure will your location be? Will this app ever actually switch off? Yay conspiracy theories, mind you, I would have considered this an issue before the NSA scandal.

 

 

http://officialandroid.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/find-your-lost-phone-with-android.html

[lorekeeper]

This is interesting and not too worrying in my oppinion, not because the risk of tracking you is not a real one but rather because all this is doing is creating a user friendly, consumer grade way to track your phone. This app does not add any hardware capability that the phone didnt already have thus i consider it likely that with or without it organizations like the NSA would have access to your location either way. However it does have a lot of usefull use cases so generally this should be fine. (note: unless they totaly screw up and allow the average user to access other phones locations, that would not be great...)

[Snickerzz]

Why worry about it tracking you? facebook does it, twitter does it, photos are geotagged (i think on android), ect ect

[qwertywarrior]

dude i could do this a long time ago

id just install a "lost/stolen app from the play store on my pc which would install automatically on my phone

[Ghost]

dude i could do this a long time ago

id just install a "lost/stolen app from the play store on my pc which would install automatically on my phone

This is different because its going to be come a stock app with android.

[qwertywarrior]

This is different because its going to be come a stock app with android.

yeah but its basically the same it shouldnt be such a big deal

[rustikles]

yeah but its basically the same it shouldnt be such a big deal

I guess it's just the matter of, you don't have the option to get it yourself, it just comes standard now.

[Ghost]

I guess it's just the matter of, you don't have the option to get it yourself, it just comes standard now.

You probably wont have the option of uninstalling as well. A benefit of that will be that its going to be much harder to disable it than an app. A factory reset probably won't be enough.

[EChondo]

I'll just force remove it with Titanium Backup.

[qwertywarrior]

This is different because its going to be come a stock app with android.

i read the article again

it looks like an app

not built in

"This service will be available later this month on devices running Android 2.2 or above"

[Ghost]

i read the article again

it looks like an app

not built in

"This service will be available later this month on devices running Android 2.2 or above"

Expect it will be stock in above 4.3. It can't be stock in already released version.

[mgsstar]

There are other apps for android that are pretty good at tracking your lost phone like cerberus. Hope we will have the function of disabling/uninstalling it to avoid conflicting with other tracking apps.

[thirdworldking]

nothign to worry about really im sure they would have been able to track you without the app

[Nicktrance]

It's actually already being pushed to devices right now and not just in the US! but will only start working in about a month. To check whether it's available on your phone go into settings and under the Security section check if it's in your device administrators section.

 

 

 

Expect it will be stock in above 4.3. It can't be stock in already released version.

 

It will be hitting ALL devices running Android 4.2.2 and above: 

 

 

You can download the new Google Play services APK from the android central article below which will give you the settings option but will not actually work until the service is live.

 

source: http://www.androidcentral.com/android-device-manager-beginning-push-phones

             http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/08/03/android-device-manager-rolling-out/

[Blade of Grass]

http://lifehacker.com/android-device-manager-goes-live-finds-and-rings-your-1056347477

It's out. And you can turn it off in the menu.

 

 

Why worry about it tracking you? facebook does it, twitter does it, photos are geotagged (i think on android), ect ect

You can turn the Geotagging on and off in the camera menu, same as IOS (except you have to go into settings on IOS).

[Snickerzz]

http://lifehacker.com/android-device-manager-goes-live-finds-and-rings-your-1056347477

It's out. And you can turn it off in the menu.

 

 

You can turn the Geotagging on and off in the camera menu, same as IOS (except you have to go into settings on IOS).

still

[Lyons]

Why worry about it tracking you? facebook does it, twitter does it, photos are geotagged (i think on android), ect ect

 

This. If companies (and the NSA according to some of you....  <_< ) want to know where you are, they already do. If they want to know something about you, they already do. People need to stop harping on about this sh*t.

[RicebowlDavid]

looks to be integrating what lookout already does in to stock android 

[Blade of Grass]

still

Still what?

[Snickerzz]

Still what?

._. your still being tracked, in some way shape or form, whether its facebook or your phone pinging the nearest cell tower

[Blade of Grass]

._. your still being tracked, in some way shape or form, whether its facebook or your phone pinging the nearest cell tower

phone pinging a cell tower isn't tracking, but I get what you mean. I was just pointing out that you could turn off the geotagging.

[Snickerzz]

phone pinging a cell tower isn't tracking, but I get what you mean. I was just pointing out that you could turn off the geotagging.

whatever its called XD you can still be pinpointed 

[ajoy39]

your phone has already been "tracking" your location, the only thing this does is let YOU track it as well

[Nicktrance]

Just tried it, works perfectly, haven't tried wiping my devices for obvious reasons although I might try that soon before flashing CM10.2.

[Scottonpc]

I prefer Cerberus anti theft. It's much better because it includes more features