IPhone-Ready Apps Mean Teens Tracked Without Calling Home.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-30/iphone-ready-apps-mean-teens-tracked-without-calling-home.html

Becca Ludlum knows better than to expect her teen son, Michael, to call home as he skateboards from the mall to the park to friends’ homes on long summer days.

Ludlum instead relies on a downloadable smartphone application called Life360 that uses satellite signals to follow the kid’s comings and goings.

“If he’s late to dinner, I can check where he is,” said Ludlum, a 36-year-old blogger from Tucson,Arizona. “He is not going to call me every time he gets somewhere -- he gets embarrassed.”

As teens in growing numbers adopt smartphones with global positioning system technology, they’re easier to keep tabs on using mobile apps like Life360. This rising tide of tracker apps creates a host of new ways for families to stay connected and coordinate schedules even as it heightens concerns about young people’s privacy.

The percentage of 13- to 17-year-olds using mobile phones rose to 70 percent last year from 58 percent in 2012, according to Nielsen. A reflection of the rising number of kids on phones, Life360 Inc., Glympse Inc., TWT Digital Ltd.’s ZoeMob and other developers of location-monitoring software have seen downloads jump at least 50 percent this year. Apple Inc.’s iPhone also comes with a widely used location feature, called Find My Friends.

“Even small children are getting smartphones, and that, of course, expands the addressable market significantly,” Andre Malm, an analyst at Berg Insight AB, said of the market for location-based apps.

Introduced four years ago, Life360 is adding 2 million new users a month, and just passed 100 million members, up from 63 million at the end of 2013. ZoeMob has notched up 2.3 million downloads this year, for a total of 7.3 million. Glympse, based in Seattle, has experienced its fastest growth in the past four months since the app debuted in 2009, according to Chief Executive Officer Bryan Trussel.

Privacy, Carriers

Because family-tracking software keeps data on identities and exact locations, privacy controls are a key consideration for developers of the programs. Most apps let users turn their location-monitoring on and off, and require them to go through an extensive opt-in process.

The apps are also designed so that only a pre-defined group of users can access individual locations, rather than making tracking data publicly available.

Premium features also enable uses that go beyond finding out where family members are. Parents can receive alerts if a teen driver is exceeding speed limits, and users can get emergency help or contact a personal assistant.

Glympse, based in Seattle, has experienced its fastest growth in the past four months since the app debuted in 2009, according to Chief Executive Officer Bryan Trussel.

Introduced four years ago, Life360 is adding 2 million new users a month, and just passed 100 million users, up from 63 million at the end of last year.