Our faux thief in action, not realizing that his every move online is being watched.
(Credit: Donna Tam/CNET )
If you have ever had a laptop or smartphone stolen, you probably found yourself fantasizing about capturing the thief red-handed. I know I did when I lost my smartphone last year.
I used the Lookout mobile security service to locate where the phone was on a map and made it "scream" a few times. But I didn't want to knock on a stranger's door all by myself and ask if they had my phone, and the battery had died by the time I could take someone with me. I just wasn't sure I was ready for a confrontation based on approximate GPS location tracking.
But some device recovery services let you spy on whoever snatched your laptop or phone. For instance, LoJack for Laptops allows investigators to watch what a thief might be doing in real time, checking e-mail, conducting Google searches, and so on -- activities that in most cases can lead police straight to the device. Apparently, even thieves can't resist the urge to log on to social-networking sites.
"When they get to a password prompt, to get through they reinstall Windows," said Geoff Glave, a senior product manager at Vancouver-based Absolute Soft... [Read more]
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