Can someone see your location if your phone is off?

Can you track someone's location through Google?

The answer is yes.

In order to do so you need to obtain their Google account information and use Google's own built in location finding tools. If you want to know where they are you can use Google Maps, and also some web based tracking tools that are available online.

Google maps has lots of features, but you will find more information about this in the Google Maps guide. To track someone through their Gmail, and phone number you will have to obtain a court order from a District Court judge (or higher if the case gets referred up to the Federal Court.) The person who you want to track will need to give you a notice telling you where they live. Also, this is a civil case, it is not a criminal matter.

In order for the order to be effective a judge will have to sign the order. The legal terms and conditions under which this data can be released to you must also be satisfied. There are two reasons why the data cannot be disclosed; in one the legal obligations under the data protection act and in the other Google has an internal policy on sharing data with people.

You will also need to show the court that your reasons are to conduct a civil investigation or provide the information as part of a legal action. For example, the police would have a reason to get a court order.

Google, Apple and some other online services can help you track and identify the location of any phone on the internet, if it is enabled. With the latest phone operating system Android, Google is now able to track everyone by having it active on their phones. This means that if you want to you can keep a track of all the activity that your friend or family members does on Google's online services.

We have seen many incidents where the police have used this information to track and detain people. In most cases the person has been arrested, often just for using Google's online services and had their bail refused.

However, using an app that allows you to track someone means you won't have access to their other personal data as they haven't consented to giving it. This includes their email addresses, names, social security numbers, medical records and financial data.

This means that it may be possible for a court to agree to release the person's location data. However, the data protection act states that the court must make certain that it is necessary to secure someone's privacy.

Can someone see your location if your phone is off?

The answer is yes, but it's not easy.

For years, there have been apps that can detect your location even if you're not using your phone, and now police are catching on.

The first app to catch the eye of law enforcement was a tool called Find My iPhone . It's a simple app that lets you remotely wipe all data from your phone and track it in real time as it moves around the world.

Police were especially interested when Apple first introduced the feature in iOS 8. It is a big departure from Apple's traditional privacy policy: Apple makes location data only available if you actively share it with the company.

"Apple, in the end, was never going to allow that sort of activity," says Mike Masnick, a security blogger who follows Apple closely. "It just looked too good a thing for them to allow. They'd be able to say, 'See, we actually keep your data secure.'"

So Apple did the right thing by giving people the option to turn off the Find My iPhone feature. Apple also added an "always" option to the security settings, meaning you would never have to worry about losing track of your iPhone again.

But then the police got smarter. By adding a new setting to the find my iPhone app, they were able to turn the location sharing feature on and off, at any time.

If you're wondering what you might be enabling, you might be wondering if someone could hack your phone. A reporter at Wired decided to find out.

Hacker turned thief. A man has been accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of goods from ATMs across Toronto using a hidden camera in his van. At the same time, Toronto police say they're tracking the man's movements. They've even posted an online picture of him with a description and tips on how to recognize him.

The man's name has been withheld. He's being charged with 11 offences, including attempted possession of a credit card under false pretenses, fraud and identity theft.

But once a suspect has been named, the police move into a different category: protecting the identity of the real person on the other end of the story. The officer on the scene decides whether the information he's being given by the media is accurate and fair. Masnick says it's a hard line to draw.