'Find My Friends' iOS 5 App Breaks Up A Marriage: REPORT

Apple's new location-based "Find My Friends" app may already have cost one couple their relationship.

The app, developed for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices running iOS 5, allows you to find and track your friends' coordinates if that friend has opted-in to sharing his or her location. The app aims to make it easier to find and meet up with friends, yet there could also be downsides to the app precisely because it allows users to check up on each others' locations--and see when someone is fibbing.

This is reportedly what happened recently to one couple. On October 15, MacRumors reader "ThomasMetz" posted a comment titled "Divorcing wife. Thanks iPhone 4s and Find My Friends." His post went on to say that he had secretly installed Find My Friends on his wife's new iPhone 4S because he suspected she was "meeting this guy who live uptown." According to the post, when the app confirmed ThomasMetz's suspicions that his wife was uptown, he texted her to ask where she was and she said she was downtown. ThomasMetz concludes the post by saying he took screenshots of the alleged proof of infidelity and would "meet her a$$ at the lawyer's office in a few weeks. thankfully, she's the rich one."

The validity of this sensational story was questioned by other readers of MacRumors because ThomasMetz had only recently appeared on the forum. One commenter wrote, "But the skeptic in me is doubting, since he just made his account this month." In fact, according to another commenter the ThomasMetz handle had only been created that day.

According to The Next Web, the problem with Find My Friends is that, “Unlike foursquare, 'Find my Friends' shares your location with whomever you accept a request from, all of the time.” With Foursquare, each check-in is a decision to tell people where you are, while Find My Friends constantly transmits your location whenever it’s turned on, although you can choose to only share your location information for a limited time.

Potential creepiness aside, the app has other issues. While it's advertised as being good for families, only one device per Apple ID can use Find My Friends at a time. According to ZDNET, this could be a big pain for households that share an Apple ID over multiple devices.

A commenter on the iTunes App store wrote, “I had to make my wife a new iCloud Apple ID in order to use this app. We have to choose between sharing calendars, photostream and contacts -- and being able to use this app.”

See other top features of iOS 5 below including iMessages, Twitter integration and Apple's Newsstand.

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If you buy a brand new iOS 5 device, you no longer have to immediately synch it using a PC. "You can now setup and activate your device right on the device and you are ready to go. It's that easy," said Forstall, according to Engadget. When it comes time for a software update, users can download the new software releases over-the-air without a PC. Users will also be able to backup and restore their iDevices via Apple's iCloud.

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If you buy a brand new iOS 5 device, you no longer have to immediately synch it using a PC. "You can now setup and activate your device right on the device and you are ready to go. It's that easy," said Forstall, according to Engadget. When it comes time for a software update, users can download the new software releases over-the-air without a PC. Users will also be able to backup and restore their iDevices via Apple's iCloud.

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[Know The Code]

05:32 PM on 10/26/2011

Hey everyone! I'm currently working with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and wanted to let you know about their new campaign, "Know the Code, Protect the Moment." As part of the campaign, you can enter to win a trip for two to Las Vegas, NV, including airfare, lodging and more! I hope it's OK that I am posting this here!

With users non-stop tweeting, texting and Facebook updating to reveal "What Happens Here, Stays Here moments, it's time to take action. Got a friend who just talks too much? Report them on Facebook.com/lasvegas! Get more info and take the oath at VisitLasVegas.com/knowthecode. Do you share too much on Twitter and Facebook, or do you turn your phone off the second you hit the Strip??

[pammiethekid]

11:45 PM on 10/24/2011

Ridiculous. He hacked into his wife's iPhone to check up on her. He found what he suspected he would find, that she was lying to him. She should sue him for invasion of privacy, and he should get into counseling for being too much of a coward to simply confront his wife.

[Ashish Srivastava]

10:21 PM on 10/22/2011

well, at some point, we all will realize how obsessed and possessed we are with our gadgets and lead a simpler life :-) , you know.. where we actually meet people, talk to them in person and go out and do stuff.. instead of walking on the streets with two white wire emanating from our ears and tightly clutching a small device, staring at it.. and just using peripheral vision to not run into the incoming traffic

[joeyfoto]

07:05 AM on 10/21/2011

This scenario may be fabricated but the technological potential of the app to document such facts and create interpersonal havoc is obvious.

Soon everybody will know everything, and, as John Lennon told us long ago, "We all have the same secrets..."

[lunkenco]

05:53 AM on 10/21/2011

how secure is the information?
can all the information people enter, be used/Abused by all and sundry,
profiles created,by editing the contents, eliminating some essential facts,
that hide the intentional exclusion of negative information?
And leading to a grave threat to the freedom,
of so many, gullible, careless people?

please discuss this,
alert people.
their information on computers, I phones, cell phones, internet,,
phone lines atc,
are very unsafe.
can be and is being used arbitrarily[yet denied]
by many agencies,
and hardly ever questioned,
when questioned,
the cost of sustaining the inquiry is prohibitive[vast majority cannot afford or understand][this limitation is openly abused, to pressure and prosecute /persecute the less well informed and those who can never afford a defense]

look at the politicians who paid the price,
when electronic media were used/Abused
to penetrate personal, confidential information,
and so man crucified,
before deitification.

[bibimimi]

10:07 PM on 10/20/2011

Boo-hoo. Put down the iPhone and work on your marriage and the maturity that so eludes you.

[KarateKid]

12:49 PM on 10/20/2011

Funny. I'd have thought a woman would do this to her man, not the other way around.

[Michael Ucci]

12:13 PM on 10/20/2011

Ugh, Google Android has had this for a while? It's part of Google Maps and is called latitude so why is this a privacy invasion problem now?

[KarateKid]

12:50 PM on 10/20/2011

Because tens of millions use the iPhone.

[delia washington]

12:55 PM on 10/19/2011

He really should not have touched her phone in such a deceptive way. I feel like his insecurities are most likely what lead to her cheating, if she was at all. And on top of him being insecure, he had the nerve to go through her phone, add a tracker and then try to trap her by asking her where she was without so much as a follow up question. For all he know's she could have been planning something special for him. To me it is not a question of whether or not the wife cheated, it's that he is creepy and stalking his wife's every move behind her back.

[abacuses]

11:13 AM on 10/19/2011

Amen Janice! Typical modern generational problems with our society ... misplacing the blame. The app is a tool; a resource to use. The one cheating is to blame; not the app. Com'on America ... start taking responsibility for your own actions.

[Janice S Silver]

10:34 AM on 10/19/2011

Um, thank your wife, not Apple. Sometimes we should not ask questions when we are not prepared to hear the answer. And if you are spying on your wife by secretly installing this app, then TRYING to catch her in a lie, you've got a bigger problem than you think. Who knows why she was less than honest about where she was. I am not always 100% if I don't want the answer to lead to more questions or asking me for something. ie I might say that I am at the Sprint store instead of supermarket so I don't suddenly get a list of things to pick up that I am not prepared to pay for or be questioned about what I am getting. But, Buddy, when you go LOOKING, for trouble you usually find it. If you can't just sit down with your wife and share your concerns, you are doomed, and it has nothing to do with Apple.

[Trompe loeil]

01:10 AM on 10/19/2011

If this guy thinks that lying to your spouse about being uptown when you're downtown, is grounds for divorce, he's delusional. It's not evidence of an affair, just that his wife is lying about her whereabouts, which she might do if she didn't like her spouse checking up on her.

[abacuses]

11:15 AM on 10/19/2011

So you're saying that it is perfectly justifiable to lie to your spouse? Nice. I'm sure your marriage must be incredible with such wonderful communication skills.

[Dr Serendip]

08:30 PM on 10/18/2011

Okay, let's think about this. The phone comes available on October 14. Even if the guy was stupid enough to opt in for the service while he was cheating, which is doubtful, she files for divorce on the 15th. I don't think so!

[WeWillWin]

05:28 PM on 10/18/2011

They have had features like this on phones for about 7 years or so. So it's not really some novel capability of the iphone ap that is responsible.

[MoonBeamWatcher]

03:56 PM on 10/18/2011

That's not fair . . . he didn't Marandah her and dat infamation should be dissallowed.

[Janice S Silver]

10:35 AM on 10/19/2011

Miranda

[MoonBeamWatcher]

12:29 PM on 10/19/2011

U should no!

[MoonBeamWatcher]

12:30 PM on 10/19/2011

or Oh, Lay as da Spinich framer sez 2 hiz chickenz!