Texting on Family Locator

[tpurdie]

I would like to know if there is a way to turn off the automatic text message my son receives when i locate him on Family Locator.  He is 16 and just got his license and I like to know where he is sometimes, but don't want him to know that I have this ability.

[CJSmooth]

Good question I am looking for the same thing.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi tpurdie,

That is an excellent question. I understand your concern about keeping your family safe. To protect our customers privacy we have implemented two options to make sure your privacy is protected. If the privacy setting is to "Always Ask" the Participant device is prompted to accept or provide consent for each location or Arrival and Departure Update creation request. If the privacy setting is set to "Always Allow" the Participant device is not required to accept or provide consent for each location or Arrival and Departure Update creation request. When the Always Allow setting is selected, the Participant device receives SMS notification of each location transmission. For more information on Family Locator check out this link. http://bit.ly/A44i1X.

NidiaA_VZW Support

Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

[audrocks]

I have attempted to change this option to prevent the "you are being located" message from being sent to the 3 iPhones on my account without success. I spent an hour talking to a verizon technical support representative to to avail.  I can see all the devices on the locator page and it can successfully locate them however they all receive the message.  The representative and instructions indicate there should be an "edit profile" option beneath each (above the "send text message") but I do not see this - just 'send message'.  The representative deleted my entire profile and then added each line back and re-added the Family Locator feature but I still do not see the ability to change the profiles.

The rep's best guess was that the option did not appear for iPhones but the documentation only makes reference to the iPhones lack of proximity accuracy - nothing about features being entirely unavailable. 

Has anyone been able to successfully disable these messages?

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello audrocks,

Thank you for your response message today. I understand how important it is to have the ability to track desired parties. Unfortunately, due to local privacy laws there is not a way to eliminate the notification that your son will receive when you are tracking him. The only difference between "Always Ask" & "Always Allow" is that with "Always Ask" your son will need to give his consent. With both options he will be notified of your locating intentions. Please keep us posted if you require any additional assistance, thanks!

MatthewS_VZW
VZW Support
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSUPPORT

[audrocks]

Regarding the response from Verizon.  "due to local privacy laws there is not a way to eliminate the notification that your son will receive when you are tracking him - See more at: https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/941432#941432"

I would tend to disagree with his assertion given that his exact same topic exists with my AT&T wireless and their FamilyMap  service. I have been using it for years without this constraint. Either AT&T or Verizon has their facts wrong, but, regardless, the Verizon product is worthless to me.

[MZW]

I was very disappointed to learn, from my children, after ordering and setting up the family locator service, at the advice of Verizon Technical support, that everytime I used it, they were getting text messages.   "Daddy, why am I getting all these text messages saying that you are asking for my location?"

It would have been nice to know this would happen so I could have had a discussion with them beforehand to explain why I signed up for the service...  And honestly, I may have looked into other options had Verizon been clear about how this service works... You can locate your children, but they WILL be informed everytime you do. But, then I guess it probably wouldn't sell as well.

Does anyone have any advice about other apps or services which provide the locator feature without the notification.  Also, does anyone know of a locator service that can get more precise than the "within a 1 mile range of this location" -- that's not so helpful either.

Just asking!

[MathewR09]

I think i have found one way to get around this issue.  On my phone I have an app called "Extreme Call Blocker (Stealth) " , it is mostly used to block people that you dont want to call you anymore or block unwanted test messages.  It works really wellfor blocking phone numbers that you dont want to call you, you simply add the number you want to block to a "blacklist". when that numbe calls your phone it follows the setup information you assign when you added the number.  This is not a free software but it is rather inexpensive, at 5.99 per install, for what you can do with it.  You would have to download it in the phone you want to block messages.  Example :  I want to block number 504-123-456 you click on "black list" , then click at the top right of the screen. This brings up "add new" and a few other options. Pick add new and then search after you have the number that Verizon sends the message about the location from.  PIck or add that number then you will see a "message" option that gives you the options you want to happen when a message from the number comes in.  I select "Erase" because it will not show up anywhere and the program erases the message sent from your provider. 

  I do not work for the company that runs this app but I have had it for a few years and have never had problems.  Please if you buy this app read the full instructions becaue there are so many other options that you can do like monitoring information and setting up timers so that calls can not be made within certain time frames. It also have a password protect so that your kids cannot delete the app.  Check in to it, I rate it at 9 out of 10 because the instructions could be better explained!

[Me5555555]

Hi All,

I know this won't help everyone, but I did find a way around this on my son's iPhone 5. I just created a new contact named "Verizon Messages" while I had his phone in my possession (he is 15...not an easy task) and used the notification message number as the phone number for the contact. In my case, it was 326-459. After saving the contact, I chose to "Block this Caller" and I have tested it a few times and every single time I locate the phone the message doesn't come through.

He won't even notice the new contact, but if I does I will just say it is blocking Verizon notifications...which is true. He can't stand receiving the data limit messages, so he will think I am doing him a favor, anyway.

Hope this helps!

[sharonmshepard]

Thanks Verizon, you guys are awesome as usual.  She said with extreme sarcasm.