There is a thread here (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/marriage/worried-about-new-wife-meeting-guys-464376-21.html) where a guy talks about tracking his new wife, to prove to himself that she is faithful to him. He keeps seeing small differences between where she says she's been and where the phone says she's been. Is it legal for him to do this without her knowledge?

It is legal but , in this case, not a great idea. Its legal because its his family phone. He could not do this on someone else's phone.

His wife doesn't count as someone else?

I can see tracking children, since they have basically no rights. But another adult?

When I read the ads for phone tracking software, they mention children and "loved ones," but never wives and girlfriends explicitly, though it's clearly an option. The fact that they don't say it explicitly made me wonder if it's a grey area or actually illegal. So far, surfing the internet has only turned up discussions of the legality of government entities using this, obviously a different thing.

Wouldn't monitoring another adult's every move count as stalking?

Picture it this way, what if he hired a private detective to follow her. Would that be illegal? Technology and the law do not always move at the same speed. This tracking was not possible until a few years ago. As time moves on there may be court cases that will establish a precedance but, for now, I know of no law that says you can't track someone carrying one of your cell phones.

Okay. I guess that makes sense.
Creepy though.

I will advise people to get their own cell phone/plan... not accept someone else's cell phone. In retrospect, I think someone may have done this to me, but I didn't know it at the time. I have since pulled the chip and got my own plan.

Is secretly cell phone tracking someone legal? Hello asking:

That isn't the right question. Secrecy has nothing to do with it. Whether you have the right to intercept signals in the air is the question. And, you absolutely have that right.

If you don't want to be tracked or listened to on the air, you don't use a cell phone. Or you use one WITH encryption software, and WITHOUT GPS capability. But, once you put your signal in the air, anyone can pick it up. You don't think your cell phone conversations are private, do you? Think again.

excon

It is legal but , in this case, not a great idea. Its legal because its his family phone. He could not do this on someone else's phone.Even that is a gray area. Some people have the GPS locator services enabled but aren't aware of how public it can be if they haven't managed their settings carefully.

Hello asking:

That isn't the right question. Secrecy has nothing to do with it. Whether you have the right to intercept signals in the air is the question. And, you absolutely have that right.

If you don't want to be tracked or listened to on the air, you don't use a cell phone. Or you use one WITH encryption software, and WITHOUT GPS capability. But, once you put your signal in the air, anyone can pick it up. You don't think your cell phone conversations are private, do you? Think again.

excon

No excon, I don't think cell phone conversations are private. The other part hadn't completely penetrated, that phones can be used to track someone in real time even when the person is making no calls and even when the phone is turned "off."

... that phones can be used to track someone in real time even when the person is making no calls and even when the phone is turned "off."When the phone is off it cannot be tracked.

It can if it has certain software loaded. I have this on good authority from a former ATT executive. It only appears to be off. The software can be loaded onto the phone by a third party when the phone is on.

I think if you pull the chip, it cannot be tracked! One can hope...

You must also consider the technological nature of modern cell phones.
They ceased being merely a method of voice communication several years ago.

The latest Android devices can freely broadcast your exact whereabouts to everyone and anyone, even what you are thinking (via FB, etc, updates)

Now it really depends on the use this information is being put as to the legalities of the situation.

Here is a good case in point: Canadians form adulterers' privacy campaign ? The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/rogers_nagy/)

It can if it has certain software loaded. I have this on good authority from a former ATT executive. It only appears to be off. The software can be loaded onto the phone by a third party when the phone is on.

I think if you pull the chip, it cannot be tracked! One can hope...That means having access to the phone long enough to install software, that wasn't mentioned earlier.

That means having access to the phone long enough to install software, that wasn't mentioned earlier.

In this case, "access" does not mean physically handling the phone. It just means the phone is on. I don't think you are getting what I'm saying. You can have this software on your phone and not even know it's there. It can be put there by the FBI or whomever. It does exist; this isn't a paranoid conspiracy theory. But the current generation of phones broadcast so much information that it almost makes this beside the point.

I guess I'm glad I don't live in the same country as where the FBI is. Like Ben said, when you install an Android app it tells what services it plans to use before the installation. Sucks to be an american and be spied on by your government though.

One question that hasn't been answered is who pays for the phone. If the husband pays for it, then he can definitely legally track it.

I'm assuming the account is in the husband's name.
I think it's clear from this discussion that it's legal for him to do this.
Presumably all kinds of people are now doing this with partners they don't trust (and children). Somehow, I don't see this alleviating anyone's anxieties about fidelity though.

I can get gps tracking into all of the phones I own, give them to the kids, know where they are at. I think our company has them in the ones they give us ( not sure)

You can buy tracking devices to put in your cars, ( as long as you own them)

Can't remember the case, but in one state they had trouble finding a criminal offense when someone put one under someone else's, since they were not physcially following, the state stalking laws did not apply, and since they did not go into the car, or tamper with the car, those laws did not cover it,

So often new things go past where our laws are written

I might start another thread in a technology section about how accurate phone tracking is in terms of pinpointing a specific phone's location at a given time.

I might start another thread in a technology section about how accurate phone tracking is in terms of pinpointing a specific phone's location at a given time.
Easy answer - it depends it the tracking is done by tower triangulation or by GPS.