New Service to Track Lost Laptops – Free
This looks like an interesting development. Like many mobile workers the thought of losing my Mobile PC is incomprehensible. But it does happen – rather more than you might think. According to one article over 10,000 laptops are lost in the 36 biggest US airports every week!
But if the unthinkable should happen you may be able to locate your lost device and that may help you recover it.
Lose your laptop these days and you lose part of your life: You say good-bye to photos, music and personal documents that cannot be replaced, and if it’s a work computer, you may be the source of a very public data breach.
But now, researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have found a way to give you a shot at getting your life back. This week, they plan to launch a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.
This is not the first such program Absolute Software had a product called LoJack, which has now been superceded by the Computrace Laptop Security Suite. However, it is the first time I’ve heard of a free one.
How does it work? Well before you lose your device you need to install a free client. After it goes missing you install another app and log in and you can track your device.
Adeona doesn’t exactly give you the address and phone number of the person who’s stolen your laptop, but it does provide the IP (Internet Protocol) address that it last used as well as data on what nearby routers it used to connect to the internet. Armed with that information, law enforcement could track down the criminal…
The is a Windows client and a Mac client. The Mac version will even snap photos of the person using your PC.
