This post is a little out of the norm – it’s not related to Forney or any Forney businesses, per se, but I thought it was information worth sharing with the community, since many of us are becoming increasinly dependent on our laptops not only for business, but also to keep in touch with friends and to store family photos.

A new program, Adeona, was announced last month that is similar to the Laptop LoJack system (software that tracks your laptop in the event it is stolen, much like the LoJack system for automobiles) that stores are pushing so aggressively on customers who purchase new laptops these days, but with a few critical differences.

First of all, LoJack costs $40-$60/year; Adeona is free. LoJack sends the data about your laptop’s location to a commercial enterprise that maintains a three page long “privacy” policy that outlines what they can choose to do with your personal information. Adeona obscures the data about your laptop’s location in such a way that only you (or a person you share your key with) can access it.

Basically, you install Adeona (which is a product of the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering program) on your laptop (or even desktop computer, since those are stolen, too, unfortunately). You follow the steps the installer outlines – the most important step is to remember your password and to copy the file that contains the key to unlock your laptop’s location data to a USB thumbdrive or other location that you would have access if your laptop is stolen. Once it’s installed, Adeona runs in the background and encrypts and transmits data about your laptop’s location at random intervals.

The data it transmits includes the IP address of your computer, the name of the wireless network it’s connected to, if any, and information about the network it is connected to. It’s all fairly technical information, but when reviewed by law enforcement or someone with a networking or technical background, it gives you as much or more information than what would be available to the Laptop LoJack service provider if you were using that software.

It works with Linux, Windows and Mac OS X; on Apple computers with a built-in webcam, it can actually take photos of the thief as they use your laptop! It’s completely free, you can download Adeona from the University of Washington website. I’m going to make it a habit to install it on any PC I purchase, and recommend my friends and family do the same. It won’t help if a thief wipes the contents of your laptop’s hard drive before using it, but many thieves keep your data intact in the hopes of obtaining information relating to your identity or financial accounts, so in those cases, having Adeona installed just might lead to the successful recovery of your laptop!

And, for your own safety, heed this warning that is repeated several times on the Adeona website and during the installation process:

The retrieval results are for informational, research and evaluation purposes only. Do not attempt to recover your lost or stolen laptop yourself. If you believe your laptop has been stolen, contact the appropriate law enforcement agency.