Life360: Cautious or Cruel?
Every parent feels an inherent obligation to keep their children safe. Most parents feel best knowing where their children are at all times. Who can blame them? It’s only natural. However, with recent advances in technology, adults are overlooking seriously harmful truths and technicalities about popular location tracking apps like Life360 for the satisfaction of easily monitoring whereabouts. What you may perceive to be a necessary measure could truthfully be a cause of serious concern in all aspects imaginable. Life360 is a breach of privacy, an anxiety inducer and enemy of trust among families, and a danger to personal information. Life360 users should not only fear the dynamic they’re establishing with their families, but for the security of themselves as well.
Parents, in case you didn’t know, Life360 doesn’t just track your children’s every move, but also your own. One of the most overlooked aspects of Life360 is the app’s privacy policy that every user agrees to upon signing up. The policy communicates explicitly that they have the right and ability to sell yours or your child’s information regarding your location, driving habits, and registration details to third parties like insurance companies. The app is constantly collecting data on you, which it then shares for targeted advertising. To quote the fine print exactly, Life360 admits, “We may collect and share your personal information, including your unique identifiers or Advertising IDs and other data…without limitation” (“How We Collect Information”). Now, some of you may be thinking, But wait, I wasn’t careless, and I read that fine print. They said I could opt out of this feature and I did, so I’m fine! News flash, you’re not. “Even if you opt-out, we may still collect and use information regarding your activities…” (“How We Collect Information”).
By using Life360, you are giving up your own privacy. Aside from being generally creepy, this can also be extremely detrimental to yours and your child’s financial security. Imagine this, your kid gets into a car accident at 16 years old, only just learning how to drive. Well, Life360 can track accidents. Since insurance companies are being fed information about you as users, this data could be used against you and your family to unrightfully deem such a person an “unsafe driver” and make their premiums for their insurance including health more expensive for the rest of their life.
The problems with Life360 go beyond just the invasion of your privacy. The app also lacks robust security measures, making it vulnerable to hacks. In 2018, Life360 suffered a major data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of users, people just like you, who probably didn’t even realize they were in a vulnerable position. The app keeps it no secret that your information is at risk, they outright admit that “Hackers can steal your family’s personal information from places that store data. They can then buy, sell or trade that stolen personal information, like names, emails, usernames, and passwords, on the dark web. Your family’s stolen information from another company’s data breach can be used to steal money from accounts, open credit cards or loans in your name, file fraudulent tax returns, rack up bills, and more” (“How We Collect Information”). Although Life360 does have a data breach alert system that notifies users when their information has been stolen and claims to have steps in avoiding identity theft, is it worth even remotely taking that risk? In today’s age of rampant cyber attacks, can you really trust an app with your family’s sensitive location data?
Enough of the fundamental flaws and technical dangers, and onto the real risk at hand: your family. It is no secret that Life360 has become quite the debate based on the morality of it and whether it oversteps boundaries in children and teens’ lives. Using Life360 can create an atmosphere of distrust and lack of privacy within the family. If a teenager is constantly being monitored and tracked by their parents, it can erode their sense of autonomy and make them feel like they are not trusted to make their own decisions. This can damage the parent-child relationship and lead to resentment and conflict. In order to contextualize my stance, I personally spoke with, and evaluated posted experiences from several teens between the ages of 14 and 18, all of whom have experiences with Life360…
An anonymous 18 year old user shares on a social media thread, “I don’t get it. I never lied to my mom about my whereabouts EVER and she makes me download this shitty tracking app to watch my every move. I thought things would be better when I turned 18 because I will literally be an adult, but nope. I still have to use it. I cannot take it anymore. I literally had to waste the best years of my life because my mom wanted to control every aspect of my life as a teenager. Parents, this app is not worth the irreparable damage you will cause your children. It’s not worth the crying and panic attacks you will cause your child” (“Life360 Has Ruined my Life and my Teen Years”). An anonymous 17 year old student from my school that I interviewed myself shares, “I’ve talked to my parents so much less since they made me get Life360…When I go home at the end of the day, I know that they already know everywhere I’ve been…I don’t tell them stories anymore. I don’t get excited about that. It’s made me more distant from them than I ever wanted to be, honestly. But there’s no going back from it now. That’s just how it is, and that low-key really sucks.”
It truly is a shame. Using Life360 is viewed by many teenagers as a form of surveillance, a violation of their rights and personal boundaries. Relying too heavily on Life360 may discourage teenagers from developing important life skills such as responsibility, independence, and problem-solving, which are essential for their personal and emotional growth. Of the five teens I interviewed, 3 have the app per their parents request and or demand, and 2 don’t, and are glad. One teen in particular showed extreme enthusiasm about the massive relief it is that Life360 is not a part of her life. She shares, “There have been a handful of times where I’ve gotten myself into situations I didn’t want to be in that are kinda scary, but the reason I’ve been safe in those situations is because my mom knows where I am. NOT because she’s tracking my phone, but because she doesn’t track my phone, so I actually TELL her where I’m going as opposed to tracking my phone and THINKING she knows where I am when she really might not. And you know who I call when I get in those scary situations? My mom! Because I know she’s there to look out for me, not CONTROL me. There’s a difference, and it’s honestly such a big one.”
So what’s a concerned parent to do? There are plenty of alternative solutions that offer the same level of location tracking without the privacy violations or overbearing nature. Apps like “Find My Friends” and “Glympse” allow you to share your location with selected individuals on a temporary basis, giving you more control over your data. There are also plenty of parenting techniques and strategies for establishing or reinforcing trust with your children. Several parents who have come to the realization that Life360 is not the solution have shared what works, like Suzie Glassman who shares that verbal communication and understanding of emergency measures have changed her and her son’s life for the better after trying Life360. It is time parents realize that it is possible to prioritize your family’s privacy and trust while still accessing the peace of mind that comes with knowing where your children are.
Works Cited
Editor, Opinion. “Should Parents Be Allowed to Track Their Kids’ Phones?” The Snapper, 25 Oct. 2021, https://thesnapper.millersville.edu/index.php/2021/10/25/should-parents-be-allowed-to-track-their-kids-phones/.
D’Arcy, Janice. “Does Tracking Kids Relieve Anxiety or Stoke It?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 July 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/does-tracking-kids-relieve-anxiety-or-fuel-it/2012/07/30/gJQAOY02KX_blog.html.
“Tracker Apps Destroys Mutual Trust in Parent-Child Relationships.” Tracker Apps Destroys Mutual Trust in Parent-Child Relationships — Saratoga Falcon, https://saratogafalcon.org/content/tracker-apps-destroys-mutual-trust-parent-child-relationships/#:~:text=Unfortunately%2C%20these%20tracker%20apps%20also,%E2%80%9Cstalked%E2%80%9D%20by%20their%20parents.
Liebeler, Gabi, and Olivia Barnes. “Opinion: Life360 Enables Helicopter Parenting of College Students • the Tulane Hullabaloo.” The Tulane Hullabaloo, 11 Nov. 2021, https://tulanehullabaloo.com/57913/views/opinion-life360-enables-helicopter-parenting-of-college-students/.
“Support.” Life360, 20 Sept. 2022, https://www.life360.com/support/.
Jon Keegan and Alfred Ng, et al. “The Popular Family Safety App Life360 Is Selling Precise Location Data on Its Tens of Millions of Users — the Markup.” The Popular Family Safety App Life360 Is Selling Precise Location Data on Its Tens of Millions of Users — The Markup, https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user.
“R/Trueoffmychest — life360 Has Ruined My Life, and My Teen Years.” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueOffMyChest/comments/xk3c46/life360_has_ruined_my_life_and_my_teen_years/.
Skenazy, Lenore. “Life 360 Should Be Called ‘Life Sentence 360.’” Let Grow, 22 Mar. 2022, https://letgrow.org/surveillance-teens-parent-rant/.
Glassman, Suzie. “Why I Ditched life360-Your Teen Mag.” Your Teen Magazine, 27 Dec. 2021, https://yourteenmag.com/family-life/discipline/i-quit-life360.
