Tracking a cell phone number is illegal in the country if you are an ordinary civilian. It is a federal crime even if you know how to track a cell phone number. However, you can do it if you are confronted by a specific situation that necessitates cell phone tracking, such as to ensure that the person using the phone is safe, or if your phone has been stolen and you want to trace it. For all these scenarios, you need special permissions for the same. Even law enforcement officials need a warrant if they want to track you using your phone number. If you are wondering how to track a cell phone number without getting into trouble, the following are some of your options.
- Using cell phone carriers
All the major telecom companies in the country, like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T mobile offer a paid feature that allows you to track cell phone numbers attached to your account. To use this service, you require permission from the number you want to track. Therefore, this method is completely legal. Using this service, a user can keep track of family members and friends and ensure their safety. - Using smart-phones
The invention of smart-phones has made tracing cell phone numbers an extremely easy task. If the number or person you are trying to track uses a smartphone, you can track it using your own smartphone. The Android device manager of Android phones lets a user track any Android phone using the Internet, but this works only if the GPS setting is switched on. Apple users can use the Find My iPhone app or Find My Friends App to trace any iPhone using another iPhone. - Using third-party apps
This is the trickiest method on how to track a cell phone number because tracing a cell phone number using a third party app needs a written permission, else you may end up in legal trouble. There are many third-party applications like mSpy and Find My Friends that let you track a phone number using GPS. One other issue with this method is that both the phones, the one being tracked and the one used for tracking, need to have the app installed on them. Therefore, you will have to physically access the phone that you want to track and install the app on it, which might not be as easy as it sounds.
You may go ahead and try these methods, but you have to make sure that you are following all the legal rules and do not end up behind bars.