My new girlfriend has a tracking device in her phone - The fuck do I do about it?

[Alpha 1-1]

So, my new girlfriend told me she has a tracking device in her phone. Her biological mom has demonstrated that it works, and apparently my girlfriend's Mom, step-mom and father all have access to it. I'm pretty sure it's a third party application installed on her Galaxy S3, not the Verizon family plan, because her mom sees it on her computer and isn't on the same phone plan as my girlfriend. She can't see it in the apps list, so it's apparently hidden. Her mom is a fucking nutter, she also tracks her boyfriend AND has access to the records of all of his calls. This is so close to big brother it's not even funny. She can't visit me on the weekdays because we live too far away, and I can't drive there then. Visiting on the weekends is hard because she either has to be at my house with people constantly bugging and/or monitoring us, and it's even WORSE at hers. This combined with all of this NSA horse shit that's been going down is making me feel more and more like Big Brother's already here.

Even if you don't have any ideas of what to do about it, I thought you guys would find this interesting/I wanted to rant about it. This is just so fucking despicable it's not even funny. So, ideas? Comments?

[woolio1]

I'm going to say, this sets off all sorts of red flags about your future relationship... But barring that, have you tried just turning the phone off?

Heck, rip out the battery. If it's an S3, you should just be able to pop off the back and take it out.

Also, best of luck dealing with the crazy mother, step mother, and father. I know exactly what that's like... And it's not good, I'll tell you.

[NO ONE]

If you somehow can manage to show that you're a very mature teenager (presuming you are a teen, if not, well the situation certainly sounds like a teen kid type of deal), that can keep it your pants and add layers of meaning to your GF's life, the parents will take a liking to you.

Transparency isn't always a bad thing, although yeah, a tracker like that crosses the line and is a bit extreme. If you're really a good dude without any detrimental vices that would only cause problems, then just keep being yourself and don't be deterred by the monitoring. If you got nothing to hide you've got nothing to lose.

[Alpha 1-1]

[QUOTE=woolio1;42694725]I'm going to say, this sets off all sorts of red flags about your future relationship... But barring that, have you tried just turning the phone off?

Heck, rip out the battery. If it's an S3, you should just be able to pop off the back and take it out.

Also, best of luck dealing with the crazy mother, step mother, and father. I know exactly what that's like... And it's not good, I'll tell you.[/QUOTE]

They'd know if the phone was off is the issue. Me and her thought that what we'll do is say the battery was almost dead (Which it tends to be in reality, oddly enough) so we charged it at my house. The issue is that's a temporary solution, we can only do that so many times. Doubt there's a lot of other solutions.

Also, dealt with a similar thing yourself?

[editline]29th October 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=NO ONE;42694744]If you somehow can manage to show that you're a very mature teenager (presuming you are a teen, if not, well the situation certainly sounds like a teen kid type of deal), that can keep it your pants and add layers of meaning to your GF's life, the parents will take a liking to you.

Transparency isn't always a bad thing, although yeah, a tracker like that crosses the line and is a bit extreme. If you're really a good dude without any detrimental vices that would only cause problems, then just keep being yourself and to be deterred by the monitoring. If you got nothing to hide you've got nothing to lose.[/QUOTE]

That last sentence is the equivelant of "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide" you know. Also, if she even drives off somewhere when she shouldn't so we can hang out, everyone will be all "Dafuq are you doing there?" Also yes, I'm 16. All of her parents like me, but there's no way they'd get rid of it because they like me as far as I'm aware.

[draugur]

I have a solution for you OP:

1. Get tape.
2. Tape phone to either a homeless man or a stray dog, whichever is closer.
3. there are no more steps, the phone is now on a magical quest to who gives a fuck.
4. Actually, yes, you need to get a plane or boat ticket to somewhere else.
5. The island from castaway is nice this time of year.

[Alpha 1-1]

[QUOTE=draugur;42694774]I have a solution for you OP:

1. Get tape
2. Tape phone to either a homeless man or a stray dog, whichever is closer
3. there are no more steps, the phone is now on a magical quest to who gives a fuck.[/QUOTE]

Ha, brilliant.

[catbarf]

Every phone is a tracking device, most people just don't care enough to do anything about it.

Short of destroying it it is impossible to prevent it from being tracked by anyone with access to the right resources.

[Olas]

If it uses the phone's GPS, can you not just either turn it off or look for an app that spoofs your location? I'm sure there's tons of them.

[Alpha 1-1]

[QUOTE=Olas;42694820]If it uses the phone's GPS, can you not just either turn it off or look for an app that spoofs your location? I'm sure there's tons of them.[/QUOTE]

Turning it off would be suspicious to them, and location spoofing apps have to run before any apps that access GPS location, from what I read on one of them. I may be mistaken though, if anyone has some suggestions for good apps.

[draugur]

You could just leave her phone on a table or something, you know, since GPS in phones isn't more accurate than 15 meters or so anyway, it'd be like she was just hanging out at your house or something.

[Zeke129]

Factory reset the phone, see if it's still there. If so, flash a custom rom.

[woolio1]

[QUOTE=Alpha 1-1;42694746]They'd know if the phone was off is the issue. Me and her thought that what we'll do is say the battery was almost dead (Which it tends to be in reality, oddly enough) so we charged it at my house. The issue is that's a temporary solution, we can only do that so many times. Doubt there's a lot of other solutions.

Also, dealt with a similar thing yourself?
[/QUOTE]

I'd prefer not to go into specifics, but the first girl I dated in HS was in a similar situation, only with an actual GPS tracker instead of a phone. She turned out to be a bit unstable, stockholmish... Didn't work out. We broke up after three months, she transferred schools, and now she's some sort of furry/anthro fetishist. Pretty sure she's also a lesbian now, not that there's anything wrong with that.

In short, what I'm saying is this: Often, if one member of the family is cracked, specifically the matriarch, that instability has a way of worming its way into everyone else's brain. That can cause some... Unpredictable results. I'm not saying it'll happen to you, since my horror story's pretty unique, but I'm just saying be careful.

Oh, and keep it in your pants, or at least use protection. You don't want kids at 16.

[Alpha 1-1]

[QUOTE=woolio1;42695275]I'd prefer not to go into specifics, but the first girl I dated in HS was in a similar situation, only with an actual GPS tracker instead of a phone. She turned out to be a bit unstable, stockholmish... Didn't work out. We broke up after three months, she transferred schools, and now she's some sort of furry/anthro fetishist. Pretty sure she's also a lesbian now, not that there's anything wrong with that.

In short, what I'm saying is this: Often, if one member of the family is cracked, specifically the matriarch, that instability has a way of worming its way into everyone else's brain. That can cause some... Unpredictable results. I'm not saying it'll happen to you, since my horror story's pretty unique, but I'm just saying be careful.

Oh, and keep it in your pants, or at least use protection. You don't want kids at 16.[/QUOTE]

I don't think she's nutty, really. Also, yeah, I'm not going to be stupid.

[mako_]

I don't understand what difference this makes to your relationship

It's a tracker right? Not like a RECORDING device or something

If her parental trio are over protective and weird then you'll probably have some kind of issues down the line, but I don't see why you give a shit about this.

[S31-Syntax]

[QUOTE=Zeke129;42695243]Factory reset the phone, see if it's still there. If so, flash a custom rom.[/QUOTE]

I was going to come here to suggest just that.

Alternatively, if you can get it rooted, an app called Titanium Backup will let you remove it regardless of where its hiding.

[Foxtrot200]

If you're both adults or if you just don't give a shit, I'd say root the device and use a task scheduler to force a GPS spoofer to run before the tracker app. If you can't exactly do that, find a way to kill the tracker, run the spoofer, and then restart the tracker.

[Zeke129]

[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;42695517]I was going to come here to suggest just that.

Alternatively, if you can get it rooted, an app called Titanium Backup will let you remove it regardless of where its hiding.[/QUOTE]

Titanium Backup should also let you periodically freeze the app, disabling tracking, without turning your phone off if removing it entirely would be too obvious.

[Corn]

How old are you? You should have a serious conversation with her mom

[FingerSpazem]

best solution is for her to pay for her own phone plan so her parents can't fuck with anything

[avincent]

Question is, why do you care? Are you taking her somewhere to fuck or something? If you're staying at your house just keep it. Who gives a fuck. The mother has every right to know where her child is. I think you're making her out to be a bit more nutty than she really is.

[LunaBadger]

[QUOTE=avincent;42696202]The mother has every right to know where her child is..[/QUOTE]

I don't want to start a debate, but I have to counter, what about her daughter's right to privacy?

[Snek]

Root the phone using Odin and install CWM Touch Recovery + Slim Bean! I love it on my S3.

[Zeke129]

[QUOTE=avincent;42696202]The mother has every right to know where her child is.[/QUOTE]

I don't agree.

There's a point where violating your child's privacy becomes so overwhelming and potentially causes such psychological distress that it borders on child abuse. A 24/7 location tracker pushes this border.

Privacy should be a fundamental human right because it's just so important to mental wellbeing.

[WastedJamacan]

[QUOTE=LunaBadger;42696285]I don't want to start a debate, but I have to counter, what about her daughter's right to privacy?[/QUOTE]

just to play devil's advocate here, i'm not positive minors legally have a right to privacy.

[BrainDeath]

[QUOTE=Zeke129;42696541]I don't agree.

There's a point where violating your child's privacy becomes so overwhelming and potentially causes such psychological distress that it borders on child abuse. A 24/7 location tracker pushes this border.

Privacy should be a fundamental human right because it's just so important to mental wellbeing.[/QUOTE]

I'd say it really comes down to age but of course OP is not obliged to tell us how old his girlfriend is.

[lapsus_]

Tell the people at your house to please don't bother and monitor you two for a little, since by your description your parents are the most reasonable of the 2, then give her the d in the privacy of your room.

[TroyTroy]

This is the weirdest thing I've ever heard of when it comes to this topic. If my parents did that to me I think I would go insane.

[LunaBadger]

[QUOTE=WastedJamacan;42696681]just to play devil's advocate here, i'm not positive minors legally have a right to privacy.[/QUOTE]

What do laws have anything to do with it?
It's a right one should have has as a human.

Laws and the inherent rights of man are different things.

Does her mother legally have the right to control her daughter?
Her daughter still has her right to freedom.

[Lalelalala]

A tracker would be fine if just used for emergencies, not to check up on your kids all the damn time.

[woolio1]

[QUOTE=LunaBadger;42697148]What do laws have anything to do with it?
It's a right one should have has as a human.

Laws and the inherent rights of man are different things.

Does her mother legally have the right to control her daughter?
Her daughter still has her right to freedom.[/QUOTE]

It could be argued that, since the girl's 16 or younger, her parents have the responsibility to keep an eye on her while she lives with them. I don't think that's particularly unreasonable, but it does show signs of distrust in the mother.

It's also almost universally-accepted that the civil rights regarding freedom and privacy aren't in effect until you turn 18, here in the States.