Protego FAQ

Protego is a family location-tracking app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac (with Android in pre-registration on Google Play, launching end of summer 2026). It does real-time GPS sharing, geofencing alerts, and 30-day journey history — wrapped in a magical, fantasy-themed experience with wizarding-style avatars on a parchment-style map. The name comes from the Latin protegere, "to protect," and from the protection charm of the same name in popular fantasy fiction.

The same core mechanics — real-time location, geofencing, journey history — but with a magical aesthetic designed so kids and teens actually want to participate. Plus we do not sell location data to third-party brokers; our entire business model is the paid plan for larger family circles. Life360 is positioned as fleet-management-style surveillance software; Protego is positioned as a shared protection charm.

Families who want a safety app the whole household — including teens — willingly engages with. Especially loved by fans of magic-school fantasy stories, parents who care about privacy, and anyone tired of tracking apps that feel like surveillance software.

Protego is the Latin word for "I protect." It is also the name of the shield-charm in popular fantasy fiction — a love-letter reference for the magic-loving families the app was built for.

Free to download and free to use for family circles up to two people. Adding more family members requires a paid plan — that is how we keep the business honest without selling location data. For couples or single-parent households the free tier covers the whole app.

The free tier is the trial — full functionality for two-person circles, with no time limit. You only move to a paid plan when you want to add more people to the circle.

No. The pricing is straightforward: free for circles up to two, paid plans to add more. No hidden fees, no surprise upgrades within the core experience.

Real-time GPS location sharing for the whole family circle, geofencing alerts (set wards around school, home, work, anywhere), 30-day journey history, home screen widgets, wizarding-style avatars, and a parchment-style map. All in a battery-efficient background mode that does not drain phones.

Protego uses the same phone GPS hardware as every other location app, so accuracy is comparable to Life360, Apple Find My, and similar tools. In good signal conditions, accuracy is typically within a few meters.

Geofencing lets you set invisible boundaries (we call them "wards") around important places — school, home, grandma's house, sports practice. When a family member arrives at or leaves a ward, the app automatically notifies the circle. No texts, no questions, just a quiet confirmation.

30 days of journey history is available for every family member in the circle. You can scroll back through routes, see where someone went on a given day, and review the past month at any time.

Yes — that is the whole design. Protego is built around a family circle where everyone can see everyone's location. Mutual visibility (kids see parent location, not just parent seeing kids) is the most effective trust-builder in family tracking, and it is what makes teens willing to keep the app installed.

Yes. Protego is built to run quietly in the background using battery-efficient APIs so it does not drain phones. Open it only when you want to look at the map.

Not yet. This is one feature Life360 currently has that Protego does not. For families with teen drivers who specifically need automatic crash alerts, Life360 may be the better fit on that one feature.

Yes. Protego is live on iPhone, iPad, Mac (M1+), and Apple Vision today. Available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/protego-gps-location-tracker/id6744029280

Not yet, but soon. The Android app is in pre-registration on Google Play right now, with a full release at the end of summer 2026. Pre-register: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cintraprod.gps.locator&hl=us

End of summer 2026. The app is in pre-registration on Google Play now — you can sign up to be notified the moment it launches.

Yes. Protego runs on Mac (M1 and later) as well as iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision.

No. We never sell location data, we never share it with third-party data brokers, and we never aggregate it for resale. Our entire business model is the paid plan for larger family circles — that is the whole revenue picture.

Life360 has been publicly criticized for selling aggregated user location data to third-party data brokers; a 2021 investigation found them to be one of the largest such suppliers in the industry. Their policies have been updated since, but the business model has historically included data monetization beyond subscriptions. Protego has never sold data and never will.

Yes. Protego is designed around transparent, consensual family tracking — every family member knows they are in the circle, can see the app, and shares back. We do not sell or share children's data. The design philosophy is that safety should feel mutual rather than surveillance.

On any phone, a user with access to settings can disable location services. This is part of why transparent, mutual-circle tracking works better than covert monitoring — a child who is bought into the circle is far less likely to disable it than one who was being watched secretly.

Yes, your family's location data is encrypted in transit and at rest. It stays inside Protego and is never sold or shared with third parties.

Download Protego from the App Store (or pre-register on Google Play for the end-of-summer Android release). Create your family circle. Invite people with a simple link — they install the app, join the circle, and choose their wizarding-style avatar. Set wards around your important places (school, home, work). Done. Setup takes about ten minutes.

Inside the app, generate an invite link for the family circle. Share it with family members however you like (text, email, AirDrop). They tap the link, install Protego if they have not yet, and join the circle.

Protego is currently designed around one family circle per account. If you need separate circles (e.g. immediate family vs extended family), we recommend keeping it in one combined circle since people only see members of their own circle.

A small independent team that loves both family safety and fantasy stories. We built Protego because nothing on the market felt like an app a family would actually want to invite into their daily life. The viral TikTok response (3M+ views) confirmed the instinct: there was a real audience for a magical, fantasy-themed alternative to surveillance-style trackers.

No. Protego is an independent product. The name and aesthetic are a love-letter to magic-school fantasy stories generally, but the app is not officially affiliated with any film, book, or media franchise.

Email cintraprod@gmail.com. We read every message.