ET wanted to phone home, and if your mac laptop is stolen, I bet you want it to phone home and let you know where it is. Well MacTrak from GadgetTrak does not phone home but does let you know where it and takes a picture of who is using it. According to the FBI 97% of the laptops stolen will never be recovered. MacTrak uses Skyhook Wireless‘ Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) for the location-awareness and integration with Flickr for storing pictures.
“GadgetTrak offers the most advanced data protection and theft recovery solutions available for mobile devices,” said Ken Westin, founder and CTO of GadgetTrak. “Taking advantage of Skyhook’s cutting-edge location technology allows our software to send the location of the device to the owner along with a photo of who is using the system, greatly increasing the chances of getting the stolen device back.”
“GadgetTrak is an excellent example of location-awareness enhancing the security of our valuable mobile devices,” said Kate Imbach, director of marketing at Skyhook Wireless. “And in practice, Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning can pinpoint the location of a stolen device within 20-30 meters even in dense urban areas or indoors, meeting the tough performance standards of security applications.”
When a MacTrak enabled laptop is stolen, the device owner can remotely activate tracking for their stolen system. Once the stolen device connects to the Internet, GadgetTrak’s patent-pending software will determine the device location using WPS. It will also activate the Mac’s camera and photograph the person using it. It will upload the image, location and network information to Flickr and send an email to the owner with the same information. The data will continue to be sent over time until tracking is disabled.
