I just discovered this app. I know there are folks out there who think location tracking is the opposite of privacy but it’s a nice security tool to keep track of your loved ones. I found this one thats fully end to end encrypted. I am currently in the works to migrate my family of 10 over. (This includes my grandparents who are less than tech savvy)
Just thought I would share in the event there was a father like me looking for a similar tool that doesn’t sell your location data or breach your data.
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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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delta chat supports location sharing https://delta.chat/en/help#how-can-i-share-my-location-with-my-chat-partners
all hell will break loose when a malicious actor gains access to your 12345 encrypted app
Great. How does everyone enjoy practically enslaving your family members? I would understand using this when traveling alone trough unsafe location, but not for 24/7 tracking.
I’ve used Grid (https://mygrid.app/) a while ago, since it’s open source, cross-platform, selfhostable (although I did not experiment with that) and E2EE. However, I found it to be a bit buggy, and the location did not always update. Also, the power consumption was pretty high. But, I see that it’s been updated some, since I last used it, so it might have solved some of these issues🤞
I’ve been using this app with one other person for shared tracking. we’ve been satisfied with the (lack of) battery drain, which was my main concern about the app (not for anything specifically about Paralino). so far, no issues or qualms. will be nice when it no longer relies on Google Services on Android.
I only have location services enabled under certain conditions when away from the house, but it seems to handle the off / on of this service just fine without having to restart the app or anything. unsurprisingly, it also let’s me view the other’s location even if my own location is disabled at the moment. we have ours sharing location, battery percentage, and network type from each device.
paid features let you add more connections to share locations with, create additional groups, and other small QoL things like being able to attempt a forced refresh of the other person’s location, etc.
Not directly intended for this, but I use a self-hosted Home Assistant server for this. My wife and I both use it for home automations, and the phone app can report its location back. We can see where each other is on the map, as well as a 24 hour (configurable) location history.
Other encrypted FOSS location apps are OwnTracks and Zood
I think those are missing the “circles” feature I need for my split family.
Well, there are also others, but I had mencioned only the FOSS alternatives. The others I found are proprietary, iOS only, paid or discontinued.
Mabe you can find those which you want to use in AlternativeTo
https://alternativeto.net/software/paralino/
I may take a look at this. Also looking for a 360 alternative
I tried it a while back. Doesn’t work without Google Play Services.
There is a good alternative called Zood location but its only for Android.
Thanks! I was about to check it out but! 70% of my family is iphone.
Yes, sadly I do not use it for the same reason.
Is the server self-hostable with all features, or planned in the future?
Either way, really cool. I’d be interested in setting it up at some point.
Home Assistant does have location tracking feature where the phone app reports the location.
Nice, wasn’t aware of it. Not sure I need it but out of curiosity, any reference on how to set that up?
https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/
Thanks and my apologies for not being clear enough but I’ve been running HomeAssistant for years now, so that part is covered, I mean specifically location tracking.
I imagine it’s in https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/core/location/ but checking. Unfortunately this feature specifically does not seem supported in the Web client, which is what I tend to prefer. For this specific situation I might reconsider.
Aah gotcha. I don’t remember exactly. I was using HA a year ago for about a month just to test around, but my home doesn’t have any smart devices so I got rid of it.
But as far as I remember, it was something in the HA settings itself (probably in the admin account or in the map). Just give location access to HA mobile app and it should work perfectly.
No worries thanks the clarification.
FWIW your house does not need smart devices, you can add them yourself as easily as adding a light bulb and a ZigBee dongle on your RPi or even desktop (but nicer if it’s always on IMHO).
You screw the light bulb in and if you leave the house one day for another one, you just unscrew it. Sure you can do more, e.g. replacing light switches, etc but you can also add plugs the same way.
I’m not trying to say anybody “needs” that, only highlighting that it’s not a heavy thing to setup and remove.
No.
I’ve tried owntracks and traccar and I’m not really a fan of either so I’d love to try this once it’s open sourced.
Traccar was they best solution I’ve going so far. Have you found others?
No, Traccar seemed like the better of the two, but I don’t like that you can’t use the site without webGL.
This app would of been great help to me a couple of years ago!
I’ll wait for this personally:
“In the future, we plan to release a version of Paralino for Android that is free of Google services and available as a direct download.”
The dev also explains the current status of the app here in the comments:
https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/paralino-location-sharing-service/23658/7
Woah, this is the first I had heard of Paralino. I had tried Zood and Grid, but this app seems way more polished.