How to Keep Track of Family Members Online Activities : Online Safety & Wellness
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Family safety is the main priority of every household. People are always worried about their family’s safety online. Especially parents, they always want the best for their kids and they want to keep an eye on kids’ phones. The phone is a great source of information because it collects important data about the habits and life of your family members, and this will include their possible bad behavior and suspicious activities. Below are some behaviors that can be a sign of something;
Are they very protective when it comes to their phone? Is it hard for them to leave their phone and need to have it everywhere they go? Is the phone always out of sight? (Do they place it face down?) Are they always locking their phone or have a privacy screen that makes it hard for someone to look over the shoulder angle? Do they put the “Do Not Disturb” function when they are around you to keep notifications silent or at bay? (Look for this feature on the iPhone, a half-moon symbol in the upper right corner.)
If you notice any behavior you will want to consider tracking their phone. You also need to look out for a second phone or a burner or even another Sim card (this is not that convenient, but there are some who do it). One way to find some information is by asking them for their phone when you are together and pretending that yours is dead.
It is even better if you manage to get the phone first before you ask for it. This way, they have to give you the password.
Touch ID
Once you have their phone, if they have enabled the Touch ID feature (or similar variant), go to the security settings tab, then add your fingerprint (if they have installed more than one print, delete one and replace it with yours so they don’t get suspicious). With this, you have easy access to their phone even if they change their password.
The Google Chrome Password hack
If your family member refuses to share their password when you want to do something innocent like order a cab or check the weather, or you cannot observe their code, then it can be tricky to gain access.
The good thing is some people are not that protective when it involves their computer passwords (you can easily unlock most of their passwords). Ask them for their computer for some believable reason and you are in.
When you get the computer, go to chrome, settings, passwords, and autofill.
When you get to the password log page, you will see which sites they have accessed that ask for passwords. The next step is the obscured passwords that are denoted by the character ‘****’. There is an eye icon next to it, click on it. You will be asked to type the computer password and now you can see the passwords. You can go ahead and save the passwords because you might need them. An easy way to save is by taking a quick photo using your phone (be careful with this because it is evidence that you have been snooping). You now need to be careful with your phone, keep it out of reach.
Downloading keyloggers
It is a software you can install on a computer and the other person won’t know that it is running in the background. You can have them record what you want, see the passwords, pages they visit, emails they send, even record them as they use the computer. This is creepy, but there are times when you have to do this.
Using a spyware app
This works like the keyloggers, but on a phone. If you have tried everything else but hasn’t worked, or you want to have complete access to their phone, you can install spyware like Spy Tracker on their phone and you get access to what they do. This can help you bust them once and for all. Keep in mind that there are legal ramifications if they choose to take action.
Tracking their movements
If they use Google, you can easily track their location history. Just click the ‘previous destination’ menu option on the navigation system. If they use android, click the Google Timeline feature on both the Google Maps app and online. This is going to work if they are logged in when they move about. Another option is typing ‘Find My Phone’ on the search bar to see where they are now.
If they are using an iPhone, there are a number of ways to track their location. You can tap into a family account if they have enabled location sharing (Find My Friends and Find my iPhone apps can work well in such cases). If this isn’t possible, then the next feature is very interesting because many people don’t know it is there. You can easily see their frequent locations by going to their Settings, Privacy, Location Services, System Services, and Significant Location. It is hard for most people to take time to disable or delete the settings every time they go out unless they are super-savvy. This makes it easy for you to see the locations they visit frequently.
There are many ways of keeping tabs on your family members for their own safety. You can put a super-small GPS device fixed under their car or an app like Spy Phone. When you track using GPS, you can see where they are going and you can easily check their activities.
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