Cellphone tracking?

[Ed W]

Pinging is simply a matter of going to a carrier's website, logging in with a LE password, and entering a phone number or ESN.
It's listening to conversations or reading texts or mail that requires a warrant.

Not according to Mobistealth:


    Review All Incoming/Outgoing IM's, Texts, and Emails
    View Web Browsing History
    Listen to Every Call Made or Received
    Listen Live to the Cell Phone Surroundings
    Review all Videos and Pics on Monitored Cell Phone
    Track a Cell Phone Even When Traditional GPS Fails


I own a landscaping business with about 80% of my employees having company-issued cell phones so I can keep track of crews and get jobs done. But with 6 crews in the field at any given time, it can take forever to contact them all and find out which ones are closest. So, I decided to install some cell phone tracking software on all the phones and Mobistealth was by far the best choice. But not only could I see where all of my employees were, I could see how much company time was being wasted on personal cell phone use because your software revealed all activities on the phones. Thank you Mobistealth-You are honestly the best investment I have made so far this year!

I'm not sure, but I think that in order for this to be legal, the cell phone owner has to install the software. So in the case of the testimonial above, the owner installed it on his phones.  That seems legitimate.  It would be legal for a parent to do the same with his kid's phone, but I have to wonder how it would play out if it was on a spouse's phone when they're going through a contentious divorce.

[patric]

I'm not sure, but I think that in order for this to be legal, the cell phone owner has to install the software. So in the case of the testimonial above, the owner installed it on his phones.  That seems legitimate.  It would be legal for a parent to do the same with his kid's phone, but I have to wonder how it would play out if it was on a spouse's phone when they're going through a contentious divorce.

Unless the person listening is a party to the conversation, it would be considered wiretapping in just about every state.

"Listen Live to the Cell Phone Surroundings" i.e., secretly turning on the microphone, would also be illegal, but you might be surprised at how vulnerable iPhones are to that.