GPS Tracking App: Is It Right To Track Someone’s Location?

GPS is a technology with many useful applications- just ask anyone who’s gotten lost while traveling in their car!  Today, more and more new GPS tracking app technologies and features are becoming available to consumers. Take for instance Snapchat’s new Snap Map feature. This feature enables users to choose who can see their location through the app. Additional GPS applications, such as a GPS phone tracker, can be downloaded on cell phones to perform numerous tasks, from locating the phone in the event it is lost, stolen, or misplaced, to outright determining the exact location of the phone’s user at any time the phone is turned on.

With these new monitoring applications come ethical and legal challenges. Many consumers have mixed opinions on whether using a tracking app to locate someone is right or not. So, we have broken down the pros and cons, and will let you decide!

Pros and Cons of Using a GPS Tracking App

Pros:

• For Parents to Keep Tabs on their Children

When you are a parent, there’s always that constant worry of where your child is and if they are okay. Many parents rely on GPS phone tracker apps to make sure their child is where they should be. For example, a working parent could check that their child got home from school. Also, parents can use the location tool to find their missing child or teen. With a parent being able to keep tabs on their child, it could help prevent their child from getting into danger.

Make sure your children get home safe from school.

• To Ensure Elderly People Don’t Get Lost

Elderly people who have Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia often get lost or forget where they live. By using a location app, elderly caregivers or those who have elderly parents can monitor their location at any time. They will feel reassured knowing where the elderly person is, especially should an emergency arise.

• Monitor Employees Out In The Field

Many jobs, especially Sales positions, involve being out in the field. However, determining if someone is where they claim to be and doing what they are supposed to be doing can be hard to gauge. Taking someone’s word for it, is not a solid business plan. A dilemma employers often encounter is finding a way to track their employees’ whereabouts. As an employer, you want to make sure your staffers are doing their job and are not taking ‘side trips’ on your nickel. By using a GPS phone tracker app, employers can make sure their employees are where they should be and are following their appointed routes.

Cons:

• Invasion of Privacy

Many consumers feel that using location apps to keep tabs on someone is an invasion of privacy. In fact, another person’s location should only be monitored with their permission. However, there are situations where being able to know immediately where another person is can be helpful. In a time when both parents work, often in jobs that require daily travel, there needs to be a contingency plan should there be a need to pick up a child at school unexpectedly. In this scenario, having each spouse’s current location can dictate who is able to get to their child’s school quickly.

Invading someone’s privacy can lead to broken relationships.

• Broken Relationships and Loss of Trust

Maybe a steady diet of watching soap operas has led some to think that checking up on their partner or spouse is acceptable behavior. By using a GPS tracking app on someone’s phone, however, you risk losing that person’s trust and your relationship since they will feel betrayed by you. For example, tracking your boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s GPS location to make sure they are actually working late and where they say they are.

• May Not Get The Result You Want

As with all technology, there are always catches. With most GPS software programs, the location option must be on and the phone must be turned on in order to track someone’s location. Without this, being able to locate someone would be impossible.

After seeing these pros and cons of using a GPS phone tracker app, what do you think? Do you think it’s worth using it? Let us know!

Read our other technology blogs on Best Cell Phone Spy Apps!