Open Source Adeona Tracks Lost & Stolen Laptops 192
An anonymous reader writes "Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there's no need to rely on a single third party. What's more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner's choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop."
Re:Reformat HD = Free Laptop? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually they state as much right in their FAQ:
What if a thief removes the software, reinstalls the OS or doesn't connect to the Internet?
A motivated and sufficiently equipped or knowledgeable thief can always prevent Internet device tracking: he or she can erase software on the device, deny Internet access, or even destroy the device. For example, Adeona currently has no mechanisms for attempting to survive a disk wipe.
We point out that we do not believe this renders Adeona (and other location-tracking systems) useless. The Adeona system was designed to protect against the common thief -- for example, a thief that opportunistically decides to swipe your laptop from a coffee shop or your dorm room, and then wants to use it or perhaps sell it on online. Such thieves will often not be technologically savvy and will not know to remove Adeona from your system. While device tracking will not always work, systems like Adeona can work, and it is against the common-case thief that we feel tracking systems can add significant value.
Re:The challenge is set (Score:3, Informative)
All I care about is the ability to remotely WIPE the machine. I dont care about recovery as Insurance gives me a new upgrade when it's stolen. I want to be able to trigger a switch that will wipe the thing hard and replace the windows boot with "STOLEN LAPTOP!" but will settle for simply wiping the drive silently.
Re:The challenge is set (Score:3, Informative)
A dead man's switch would do that.
The problems with them are that they are more often triggered inadvertently than for good reason. If you have to touch a file, access a web page, or otherwise take an action, what happens when you get pneumonia and are out with fever for a week? And if relies on an external automated function, like your server hitting a port regularly, and a zap occur if the machine hasn't been poked in a few days, what happens when you go on vacation or have the machine repaired, and forget to turn the timer off?
Or what happens if your clock battery dies, and the new one defaults to several years ago?
Laptops with built-in cell phones that can wake the system would probably be a better solution -- then you could log in remotely and do what you needed.
Re:Did we need this? (Score:2, Informative)
Not everyone has their own web servers. This system uses the OpenDHT so anyone can use it, and it doesn't depend on your servers being up.
Re:But without a central service (Score:5, Informative)
In my experience (meaning this is of course only anecdotal evidence) it all has to do with their manpower vs. the likelihood of making an arrest.
In my case for example, the house was burglarized. My alarm system went off, and the police did respond, but as I understand it, they noted that the door was open, and that was it. My friend who was house sitting had to call them back to fill out a proper report with the things she could tell were missing, and when I got back into town I dropped by the precinct with a written, detailed list of everything taken. At this point they did not have anyone assigned to investigate -- they basically take a report so you can send it to your insurance company, and that's all they do. So you're right about that.
But they aren't wrong to do that, exactly -- they have limited resources, and as a citizen I don't necessarily want them wasting their time on a case with no witnesses, no suspect, and no leads. A 5000 dollar property crime doesn't exactly warrant bringing in the CSI team to look for DNA. If it did, they would need a hell of a lot of CSI teams. I'd rather they spend their time and money catching violent offenders.
But when I ended up with the IP address that could lead them to the stolen property, suddenly they were more than willing to help. They assigned a detective, who took what I had and ran with it, because suddenly the solveability of the case had gone from a low probability and high difficulty to good probability and low effort. I'm nobody important, I assure you. Just a guy that had an actual lead.
Maybe I'm giving people too much credit, but I think most police (I've met some assholes too, I assure you) really do want to help -- it's just a matter of how best to spend their limited time and budgets.
Re:But without a central service (Score:1, Informative)
In a case like that, where they had everything they needed and more, and you had already canceled all of your cards and weren't liable for the charges. . . why would you expect to hear from them? They didn't need anything else from you.
Did they at least give you a case number? You might try calling and asking if the case was resolved, and asking to get your wife's wallet back if it has been. Be proactive -- I doubt they'll go out of their way to let you know they caught the guy, unless you ask.