Boomerang uses the Call Logs and SMS permissions in a transparent manner (discloses & prompts for access to them on install) as we need these permissions for our safe calling and safe texting features.
Google is proposing that Boomerang stop using these permissions effective March 9th otherwise they will remove Boomerang from the Google Play store.
We believe that Boomerang deserves an exception under Google’s permitted use of Caller ID, spam detection, and spam blocking. We totally fit into this exception; No parent wants strangers to be able to call their young child!
We have filled out the paperwork and await Google's decision. However, we are mystified at what Google means by stating that this must be Boomerang’s “core” functionality. That’s like having 3 kids and Google asking, which kid is your favorite!
We love all the features in Boomerang equally and I am sure that you do too. If you use our safe calling and safe texting features, please make a comment below and tell us (and Google) that you deem this “core” to Boomerang.
Note: To make a comment, you have to sign in and this support system is separate from Boomerang's Login so requires a separate sign up. If easier just email your feedback to us at: support@nationaledtech.com; Thanks!
Comments
75 comments
I am so grateful for this app. My kids hate it but I feel better knowing what's going on with them. This app has allowed me to find about about things my kids are doing and permitted me to shut it down. Please dont shut this down!
it have a great functions for children's and can be used for children daily time schedule i am appreciative for it
Message to Google:
Boomerang has been great.! Please do not take this app away from us! Work with Boomerang so that we can keep using this app to monitor our child's phone.
Thank you!
I am happy with the features that boomerang app has, including the safe call and text functionalities, these two functionalities were part of what I was looking for when I made the research to buy a parental control app.
This should absolutely be an exception.
The safe calling and safe texting feature is core to the app, and is one of the main reasons I use Boomerang as well. It was
because of this feature that I was alerted to my teen daughter sharing with someone she was suicidal and we were able to get her urgent help. This is a feature that is essential in being able to monitor our kids appropriately. The increase of technology has also brought increased risks in so many ways. I thank God I didn't have this technology growing up and because of Boomerang I feel safer allowing my child to use it in ways that don't make her vulnerable to predator's. Predator's who change their tactics as often as technology advances.
Boomerang is the one app we have found that has all of the features that we want and consistently works. The safe calling and safe texting functions are essential. Being able to monitor these activities is core to keeping children safe in this world. Time limits and app control are wonderful, but being able to check in on who is contacting our children and why is primary!
Yes, safe calling and safe texing is a core feature I chosen Boomerang for. Its paramount to have this level of control with kids these days
This functionality is one of the main reasons I love this app. With predators using online means to stalk kids, having something like this to protect them is essential to keeping them safe. I understand their concerns that malicious applications could use the permissions without a person's awareness if it is not a 'core functionality' of the app, but I believe that it is a part of the core functionality of Boomerang.
Boomerang needs to be an exception to Google's rule. As a parent it is my job to keep my child safe. She has been bullied at school this year, and without boomerangs text and call reports, I won't be able to keep tabs of what's being sent to her. For example, I saw in a recent report that one of the girls bothering my daughter texted her 15 times last night.
I concur with many others who have also commented. The ability of Boomerang to allow my wife and I to track our son's activity with SMS and phone calls allows us to provide him with a smartphone. Otherwise, I would not allow my teenage son to have an Android phone. We cannot get this functionality on iPhone, so Android is our preferred option. If Google takes this away from Boomerang and other legitimate vendors, then our only recourse will be to drop Android and move him to a dumb phone. Not what we want, but necessary in this current society. Being able to monitor my son's activity and what others share with him is necessary to provide us confidence he is being smart and not being led down a path of undesirable behavior. He is a good kid, but they all make dumb choices at times. Knowing he is being monitored is what helps keep him 'smart'.
Please don't remove this valuable features from Boomerang!
Boomerang is installed on all our children's devices as part of our approach too keep them as safe as possible, through monitoring and limiting their screen time and content access, but also ensuring their safety from inappropriate contact.
Google should be helping parents in any way possible to keep our children as safe as possible, not be making it harder and more difficult to protect them.
Fully agree. Our son hates this app, but we're grateful that the app helped us know about some borderline vicious interference by the mom of one of our son's former girlfriends who was spouting off negative comments to our son about us. She was blocked immediately on all of our son's accounts, not to mention her access to our Facebook account. We've also become aware of plans and activities that our son hadn't told us about. We're 60-plus adoptive parents (retired) of a 16-year-old. We live in the small town where I grew up, but it's still vital that we keep tabs on what our son is doing. We want him to be independent and to learn how to handle freedom as he nears adulthood, but there are certainly those out there who are "up to no good," and we'd be grossly negligent if we just sat by and hoped for the best without active involvement. There are apps that Google needs to restrict and or drop from their apps offerings, but Boomerang IS NOT one of those "bad apps." Please keep it!
Safe calling and texting features in Boomerang are the whole reason I use it. No functionality is more valuable and I don't know if I would even have enough reason to use it if that was removed.
I am looking at getting this app for my child. this is one of the features I am interested in. Did Google take this functionality away yet or are there still plans to? thanks!
Now we have Kaspersky suing Apple over the limiting of their parental controls app.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/kaspersy-vs-apple-antitrust-complaint-parental-screen-app,38868.html
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