Family Safety App Sold Location Data on Tens of Millions of Users

Last checked: Nov 6, 2026. Based on The Markup investigations from 2021 and 2022, Life360's privacy policy last modified August 26, 2026, and Default Privacy's October 2026 field guide.

Maya installs a family safety app so her parents can see she got home safe from school. The app tracks her location constantly. What she doesn't know is that in 2021, the app was selling her precise GPS coordinates to about a dozen data brokers who packaged and resold her movements.

In December 2021, The Markup reported that Life360, a family tracking app used by 33 million people, was selling precise location data on kids and families to data brokers. The investigation found that Life360 acted as one of the largest sources of location data for a multibillion-dollar industry.

Life360 stopped most of its location data sales in early 2022 after The Markup investigation. But as of August 2026, Life360's privacy policy still says it may sell sensitive personal data and licenses precise geolocation to partners for advertising and monetization.

If your family uses Life360, you should know what data the company collects, what it says it does with that data now, and how to turn off data sharing.

#Watch: How the family app sold location data

This video explains what happened and what you can do about it.

#What The Markup found in 2021

The Markup interviewed two former Life360 employees and two individuals who formerly worked at location data brokers Cuebiq and X-Mode. All four described Life360 as one of the largest sources of data for the location data industry.

Life360 sold data to about a dozen data brokers, including X-Mode, SafeGraph, Cuebiq, and Allstate's Arity. These companies bought precise location data and sold it to their own customers, including hedge funds, advertising firms, and government contractors. X-Mode sold location data to the U.S. Department of Defense, and SafeGraph sold location data to the CDC, according to public records.

In 2020, location data sales made up about 20 percent of Life360's revenue, netting the company $16 million.

The former employees told The Markup that Life360 could share location data within 20 minutes of collection, and the data was often shared raw rather than hashed, meaning it could be traced back to individual users more easily.

#What changed after The Markup investigation

In January 2022, Life360 announced it would stop selling precise location data to most data brokers. The company cut ties with most of its dozen partners but kept two:

• Arity (Allstate's data analytics subsidiary) continues to receive precise location data.
• Placer.ai receives aggregated location data, not raw precise coordinates.

Life360's CEO Chris Hulls said in a quarterly report to investors that the company would phase out all location data deals except with Arity.

#What Life360's 2026 privacy policy says now

Life360's privacy policy, last modified August 26, 2026, still permits selling and licensing location data. The Texas notice section states:

"We may sell your sensitive personal data."

A few lines later, the policy explains:

"We license certain information, including precise geolocation data (which is 'sensitive' personal data under certain State Privacy Laws) to select business partners for their own advertising and monetization purposes."

The policy says Life360 does not hand over your name, email, or phone number for this unless you ask it to share with a partner through the app, "but may share hashed versions of them with our partners." Hashing turns an email into a code, which can still match you across databases when two companies hold the same email.

#What data Life360 collects

Life360's August 2026 privacy policy lists:

• Precise geolocation data, including GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, and motion sensor information
• Device details, including battery status and advertising identifiers
• Driving and movement data, including speed, altitude, estimated steps and distance, and heading
• Driving events, including phone usage while driving, high speed, hard braking, and rapid acceleration

The policy says Life360 asks iPhone users to set location to Always with Precise Location on. Its permissions page states: "Location data may be shared with partners for crash detection, research, analytics, attribution, and tailored advertising."

#What the app shows versus what Life360 keeps

The Life360 app shows your Circle limited history depending on your subscription tier: 2 days for free users, 7 days for Silver, and 30 days for Gold and Platinum.

But Life360 keeps location data much longer than what it shows in the app. The company's law enforcement guidelines, updated October 2, 2026, say:

"Life360 generally retains location data in the form of dwell data for up to 18 months. Raw location data is retained for approximately 30 days."

Dwell data means locations where you didn't move for at least 15 to 20 minutes, which typically captures home, work, school, and other regular places you visit.

#How to turn off data sharing in Life360

Life360 defaults to sharing your data with partners. You have to turn it off manually, and each adult in your Circle has to do it separately in their own account.

#Step 1: Open your Privacy Center

1. Open the Life360 app
2. Tap Settings in the upper left corner
3. Tap Privacy Center

#Step 2: Turn off Include my data

1. Tap Your Privacy Choices
2. Scroll down to Include my data
3. Turn off the toggle

This stops Life360 from using your data for personalized advertising and sharing it with partners for monetization. The setting also affects traffic and retail insights generated from aggregated Life360 data.

#Step 3: Each adult must do this separately

Your Privacy Choices setting only controls data for the account logged in at the time. If your Circle has multiple adults, each person needs to turn off Include my data in their own Life360 app on their own device.

Life360's support documentation confirms: "You must follow these in-app steps for each person in your Circle as the 'Your Privacy Choices' option is limited to the data for the account logged in at the time of the request."

#Step 4: Review Arity connection

Life360 shares data with Arity to power driving features like Drive Detection and Crash Alerts. If you want to disconnect Arity:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Privacy Center
3. Scroll to Trusted Partners
4. Tap Arity
5. Turn off Connect to Arity

Disconnecting Arity disables Drive Detection, real-time speed tracking, driving history, and Crash Alerts.

#What turning off Include my data actually does

When you turn off Include my data, Life360 says it will no longer share your personally identifiable information with third-party partners for their own advertising and commercial purposes.

Life360 will still collect your location and movement data. It will still share that data with your Circle and with third parties as needed to provide Life360 services. But it should stop licensing your data to partners for monetization.

You may still see ads in the Life360 app, but the company says it won't use third-party data to personalize those ads.

#What turning it off does not do

Turning off Include my data does not delete the location data Life360 already collected and sold or licensed before you changed the setting. Data brokers who bought your historical location data still have it.

The setting also does not delete your location data from Life360's own servers. Life360 keeps raw location data for about 30 days and dwell data for up to 18 months.

To delete all your data from Life360, you need to delete your Life360 account. You can do this in the Privacy Center under Your Data Rights.

#The bigger question: do you need a family tracking app?

Life360 and similar apps were designed to help families coordinate and stay safe. Many parents find them useful for knowing when kids get home, checking in during emergencies, or locating a lost phone.

But every family tracking app creates a continuous record of where everyone goes. That data sits on company servers, subject to the company's privacy policy, which can change. It's accessible to law enforcement with legal process. And as Life360 demonstrated, it can be sold or licensed to data brokers for monetization.

Before using a family tracking app, consider:

• Do you need constant tracking, or would check-ins at specific times work? Some families use shared calendars and text check-ins instead of continuous location tracking.
• Who controls the data? With Life360, the company controls your location history. With Apple's Find My or Google's location sharing, the companies still have your data, but their business models rely less on selling it.
• What happens if the company's policy changes? Life360's policy as of August 2026 still permits selling sensitive personal data. That could change again, in either direction.

If you decide a family tracking app makes sense for your situation, the Privacy Center settings described above are the main controls Life360 offers.

#What this means for data broker removal

If you're working to remove your personal information from data brokers, know that location tracking apps can refill your profile even after you opt out from people-search sites.

Data brokers buy location data from apps like Life360, advertising networks, and other sources. They link that location data to other information they have about you, such as your name, address, phone number, and email. The result is a detailed profile that includes where you live, where you work, where you shop, and where you go regularly.

Even if you opt out from Spokeo, Whitepages, and other people-search sites, new location data can help data brokers rebuild parts of your profile or create new listings.

That's why a complete data broker removal strategy includes:

1. Opting out from major people-search sites
2. Limiting new data collection from apps, including location tracking
3. Monitoring for new listings and removing them when they appear

Our main guide, how to remove your personal information from the internet, covers the full process.

#The realistic routine

1. Today: If your family uses Life360, each adult should turn off Include my data in Settings, Privacy Center, Your Privacy Choices. This takes about two minutes per person.

2. When someone new joins your Circle: Remind them to turn off Include my data in their own account.

3. Every few months: Check the setting to make sure it's still off. App updates sometimes reset privacy settings, though Life360 has not been reported to do this.

4. If you're working on broader data broker removal: Consider whether continuous family location tracking fits with your privacy goals. If it doesn't, look into alternatives like scheduled check-ins or location sharing only when needed.

This routine takes a few minutes the first time and occasional check-ins after that. The goal is not to eliminate all location sharing if your family finds it useful. The goal is to stop that location data from being licensed to data brokers for monetization.

#Sources

1. The Markup, Jon Keegan and Alfred Ng, "The Popular Family Safety App Life360 Is Selling Precise Location Data on Its Tens of Millions of Users" (December 6, 2021). https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user

2. The Markup, "Life360 Says It Will Stop Selling Precise Location Data" (January 27, 2022). https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/01/27/life360-says-it-will-stop-selling-precise-location-data

3. Life360, Inc., "Life360 Privacy Policy" (last modified August 26, 2026). Life360 blocks automated access; the policy is available at Life360's legal center.

4. Default Privacy, "Family Location Apps and AirTags: Who Can See Where Your Family Is" (updated October 22, 2026). https://defaultprivacy.com/guides/family-location-apps-and-airtags

---

UndoLeak erases your data from data brokers and keeps it off.