As prices come down and wireless technology becomes more accessible, laptops and notebooks are evolving into the accessory of choice by the general population. You can’t pass a coffee shop, restaurant or outdoor bench without seeing people scowling at their laptop screens or furiously typing work or private documents. Office space is almost becoming redundant as more people adopt a mobile approach and work on the move. This means that laptops (and cell phones) contain more valuable information than in the past, and that when they go missing the proverbial fan has quite a lot to contend with.

There is laptop tracking software available that can help owners locate and hopefully retrieve their stolen or lost data. Many tracking services use IP addresses to determine where missing laptops are after they have been liberated from their owners, so that police officials can zero in the location and restore machines to their rightful owners. But according to an article by Daniel Terdiman, these services contain some inherent dangers for laptop owners, including loss of privacy and over-reliance on third party vendors.

Terdiman reports that a group of computer scientists from the University of Washington have come up with a laptop tracking solution that overcomes these problems with open source software that they have called Adeona – after the Roman goddess of safe returns. According to group leaders, Tadavoshi Kohno and Gabriel Maganis, Adeona is simple enough for users to install on their machines themselves, and it’s free.

All users have to do is download the specially designed Adeona software free of charge, and ensure that they remain in possession of the special credential key provided, which is necessary to track and monitor laptops. The system is very similar to most commercially available laptop tracking services, but the key difference, according to Kohno, is that Adeona doesn’t require the use of corporate intermediaries or servers. This means that user information isn’t available to exploitation by unscrupulous corporate employees and that data is safeguarded against court subpoenas leveled at third party vendors.

Kohno freely admits that the system in its most basic form is not entirely foolproof and may not necessarily lead owners directly to their missing laptops. But there are additional tracking methods that can be applied to help shorten the distance between owners and their laptops. For instance, Apple Mac laptops with built-in cameras can be directed to take snapshots every 30 seconds, which means that thieves can be identified and tracked via conspicuous landmarks. The system can also determine the SSID of the wireless network that is being accessed, which narrows down the location of the thief.

There are a few other minor problems with the software, for instance, laptop owners need a certain degree of technical know-how to install and run the system. The system’s effectiveness is also determined by the technical knowledge of the laptop thief, as a particularly savvy laptop thief will be able to uninstall the tracking software. Nevertheless, Adeona provides a satisfactory solution to many business professionals who are worried about the safety of their laptops, as well as the data they contain.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080824/tc_cnet/83011377231002427852;_ylt=AkB21Cb1MXXfJOyhA4U3Yk6SxLEF