So long, Life360: This privacy-minded service is location sharing done right

When we talk about phones and location sharing, we’re typically talking about limiting how much information overly aggressive apps can access.

But there’s another side to location sharing—and that’s actively opting to share your location with specific people (not companies!) for your own personal purposes.

Whether it’s being able to keep tabs on kids, confirm the safety of parents or other loved ones, or simply know where a partner is at any given moment (with their permission, of course), your existing phone can turn into a powerful peace-of-mind provider and real-world life enhancer.

The key is having the right software to make that happen in a way that’s both helpful and—just as important—also protective of your privacy. And that’s precisely where today’s cool tools discovery comes into play.

This tip originally appeared in the free cool tools newsletter from The IntelligenceGet the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures!

Location sharing, with a side of privacy

For most folks, deliberate person-to-person location sharing tends to revolve around a few primary paths:

1. ​Google Maps​ (or the other Google apps associated with it, on Android)
2. ​Apple Maps​ (or the Apple Find My app, on iOS)
3. Or Life360, a slightly pricey third-party service that people seem to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with.

All of these services have their strengths. But they also come with their own limitations as well as concerns around cost, privacy, and data protection.

➜ That’s why I was so intrigued to come across a new cross-platform location sharing service called ​ParalinoIt attempts to address all of those asterisks with an offering that’s all about giving you an exceptional all-around experience—with privacy and security at the core.

Specifically, Paralino promises:

• Complete end-to-end data encryption, so only you and the specific people you choose to share with ever see where you go
• No tracking, no profiling, and no ads of any sort
• Intricate control over exactly what information you share with anyone
• And the option to share and receive not only on-demand location info but also proactive alerts (with everyone’s permission) whenever someone in your group arrives at or exits specific places.

⌚ You’ll need roughly two to three minutes to set it up and try it out.

🔽 First, download the Paralino app. It’s available for both Android and iOS, so you can put it on any phone you (or anyone else you know) might be using.

✅ Then:

• Open ‘er up and follow the prompts to create an account and sign in.
  • you can opt to skip the sign-in and use the service only as a guest, if you want, but doing so makes it impossible to move your setup to another device in the future—so creating an account is really the most advisable way to go.
• When the app prompts you to pick a plan, tap the “x” in the upper-left corner of the screen to skip over that and stick with the service’s standard free level for now.
  • The free level limits you to a single group for sharing, with one other person and up to two alert-generating places. If you end up really liking the service or wanting more than what the free tier provides, you can always look into Paralino’s premium plans—which range from 40 bucks a year to $70 in the US, depending on the specifics—later down the road. But you certainly don’t have to pay and can get quite a bit out of the app’s free level.
• Once you reach the app’s main screen, look for the prompts to enable all the pertinent permissions.
  • The app will ask to be able to send you notifications, so it can actually give you the updates you want, and to be able to see your location all the time—even when you aren’t actively looking at it. It obviously needs that ability to be able to do what it does, and again, its core promise is that it always keeps everything encrypted and never saves any personal data.

From there, all that’s left is to connect to someone else and start sharing. And then, you can always see exactly where that person is—and vice-versa—as well as get any alerts you both opt into about each other’s locations.

It’s essentially a more fully featured and privacy-minded version of what Google and Apple offer—and a much more privacy-respecting, focused, and affordable version of what Life360 provides.

And that’s exactly the kind of standard-challenging, small-scale competitor I love to see show up in arenas dominated by big players.

🤳 I’ve been using Paralino with my wife for several days now, and so far, it’s seemed both easy and effective—and true to its promises around privacy and quality. The effect on my battery life has been minimal with the service’s default settings, too, though it seems the app would update our locations more frequently (with the tradeoff of using more battery power) if we switched from the “Balanced” updating frequency to the more aggressive “Best Performance” path.

My only real gripe is that the interface for creating an alert-generating place—a specific location where you get notifications when someone arrives and/or leaves—is kinda funky, with no apparent search function and instead only a clunky way to find a place by zooming around on a giant world map. That’s awkward.

But that one relatively minor quirk aside, Paralino is shaping up to be a solid service and a welcome alternative to the typical options in this area. If you use any sort of location sharing already or think doing so might be beneficial for you, it’s well worth your while to try.

• Paralino is available for both Android​ and iOS. The company is also working on a fully open source version of its apps for the future.
• The service is free, at its base level, with optional upgrades that lift limitations and unlock extra features. (If you do end up pursuing one of those plans at any point, you’ll absolutely want to look at the yearly subscription options—which are much better values ​​than their monthly equivalents.)
• And, again, this app is all about using strong encryption and avoiding so much as even seeing any manner of personal information—let alone sharing your data with anyone you don’t explicitly approve.

Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free cool tools newsletter—starting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app that’ll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.