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Stalk Your Family With AT&T's FamilyMaps

by Ian Rowan on April 22, 2009 at 05:20 AM

Attention worry-prone parents: AT&T is now offering location-tracking for their subscribers with FamilyMap. The service is similar to Sprint Nextel's Family Locator and Boost Mobile's Loopt. FamilyMap utilizes built-in GPS and cell-tower triangulation to locate users. AT&T's offering is limited to those within a family plan and allows members to track one another online or on their phones. You can only track persons within your 'family' plan, though, so stalking a dishonest ex won't work (unless it's incestuous).

For those of you not with AT&T and not in a family plan there is, of course, an offering from Google that provides a similar service. Dubbed Google Latitude, the free opt-in service allows you to locate your linked friends via Google Maps on your cellphone or computer. You can update your status message, locate nearby friends, and chat via Google Talk all for free (carrier charges may apply).
FamilyMap will run you $9.99 a month to keep tabs on yourself and another family member, or $14.99 a month to stalk as many as five. FamilyMap isn't supported on pre-pay phones or AT&T Go Phones.

If this is the creepy way technological advancements are headed, we think the phrase 'Keeping up with the Jones' should be redubbed, 'Keeping up with the Bates.' [From: CNET]

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Tags: att, cellphone, familymaps, gps, location, tracking

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