Can anyone explain how privacy works on an AT&T family plan? My dad recently got really intrusive in ways that, frankly, are sort of scary. For example, we had to change the locks at my mom's house (my parents have been divorced for about 7 years) because he kept randomly coming in and going through things that weren't his, he went to the post office and went through my mom's mail (which was on hold) while we were out of town, he's been reading my email (which is apparently linked to his account somehow), and a bunch of things like that. What I'm worried about now, is how private my texts are. I'm on his plan, which I'm pretty sure is a family plan because there are 6 of us on it (maybe 7 or 5, but I'm pretty sure its 6). Does anyone know if he has the ability to log into the account or whatever and read my texts without actually checking my phone? There are a lot of things that I would rather him not know about and at this point, it really isn't his business. Also, does anyone have any suggestions for switching to a different email provider? I know gmail is really easy, but is it one that you would trust with all of your email or just less important things? Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated, I'm really at a loss here thanks!!!
I think he can access your call and text logs, see who you were texting and when, but I don't believe he can directly access the messages and their content. I could be wrong though. I personally have an account with most major email providers (GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail/Outlook, etc.) and I feel relatively safe with all of them. Just make sure you have good security and passwords.
He sounds very intimidating and I hope you get out of this situation soon! As for the text messages if he gets really in depth is is possible that he can get a print up of when and what numbers you texted, but not what you've physically texted. Hope this helps! And hope things look up soon!
i am with AT&T family plan and would be able to track phone numbers and read my son's text messages, even emails receives on his android. also was offered to be able to track wherever he is as long as his phone is there too. all part of parental control. i never used it but if i had he would never have known about it. your dad sounds scary. i would get a prepaid phone for privacy.
He does track my phone sometimes, or he sets of an alarm if I don't call him when he want me to. It sounds like I need to get off the plan. I don't really know how to go about doing that though, other than to get one of those pre-paid card phones. I don't really want to set up a separate plan unless it's fairly cheap, but I would really like to have a decent phone set up, especially for next year when I leave for college. The other thing is that I don't really know how I would explain my reasoning for wanting to get off the current plan..... That really bothers me that he has the ability to read my things
Assuming you're using a smartphone and the coverage is tolerable in your area, I highly recommend T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan. You only get 100 minutes of voice, but unlimited data (5 GB at high speeds) and unlimited texting. It's hard to imagine it being that much cheaper on a family plan.
The T-Mobile 30 dollar plan is a great deal if you don't talk a lot. Even then, you could get a VoIP app to make calls over data for unlimited. Just say that you want to be responsible for when you start college and get out into the real world for a reason to get off of the plan. There's nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
Alternatively, an easier solution that won't require discussing this with your dad would be to sign up for a free Google voice number and use that for texting instead. I believe that uses data rather than SMS so AT&T wouldn't have any records/transcripts.
If your feeling up to it, flashing your phones ROM might make some of the parental controls unusable. Not really sure though. Just an idea.
I haven't been able to find the t mobile $30 plan. I probably will tell him I want to switch so I can be more responsible, that's a good idea ShyGuy, thanks! How does google voice work? As far as I can tell its sort of like one of those free texting apps but not through an app?
With Google voice you'll pick a number in your area code and can have that set to forward all calls to your real cell number. If you install the Google voice app on your phone, you can use that number for texting as well. Since that number is not controlled by AT&T and uses normal data rather than SMS, AT&T won't have any logs/transcripts/etc. of your activity. As an added bonus the call blocking features are awesome as are visual voicemail and voicemail transcripts. Plus it's completely free and doesn't require changing your plan at all.
