Over the past years, I’ve realized that my devices and the information they store is increasingly important to me. But unlike many commercial sectors from pharmaceuticals to shipping, there was no consumer level technology to easily, inexpensively and legally monitor them and their use. However recently new applications such as Prey and Apple’s Find my iPhone have emerged that will do just that. This technology uses GPS and Wifi (such as Boston’s Skyhook Wireless, which looks for nearby Wi-Fi networks). Other remote access programs such as TeamViewer can be used similarly and take photos and videos remotely. And even automate cloud based backup programs such as Mozy, Backblaze, and SugarSync can be used to view files accidentally stored by a thief. Bentley University student, Mark Bao, hilariously posted a video of a thief who stole his $1800 MacBook Pro and was dancing in his kitchen on YouTube. And often thieves will access key personal sites such as Facebook. Some services such as Zoombak allow you to monitor anything you can stick a tracker on but fees are still expensive for widespread use. Sometimes, the application is not specific enough to locate the device since GPS is not totally precise.
Owners of missing gadgets can now do their own sleuthing – Boston.com.
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