It’s a sad fact of life that your latest gadget is not safe. Leaving it at home and hiding it does not work. Houses and apartments get broken into all the time. Taking your Mac to work, school or college leaves you open. All sorts of opportunistic thieves and light fingered louts are on the lookout for that unguarded moment. You know that having anything stolen is a violation.


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You feel destroyed and victimised. You feel betrayed, and just plain let down. Home invasion is even worse. It can take us months to recover emotionally. You inform the police but how many times can they offer you a resolution?

It is also true that we keep our lives on our smartphones and our tablets. Your iMac can store everything that is personal to you. Being the victim of theft, is devastating, and we have to face up to the fact that we might never see our precious stuff again. The memories are gone. If this has happened to you, did you ever fantasise about having your revenge? Well, now you can! Clever tech like find my MacBook is turning the tide against the thief. It is giving you the chance to strike back in some amazing ways.

Tracking your device.

This is not new in itself but combined with other options is still a brilliant way forward. This app can locate your device wherever it is, and its location can tell you who has it. Armed with this information, the authorities can act. You stand a much greater chance of recovery with this in place. It’s not recommended that you take action on your own, but a locating device surely is a cool tool to have.

Remote locking

If you have this facility, you can take all the fun out of your device. How good does that make you feel? It will render it worthless to the thief and anyone he or she tries to pass it onto. A brilliant stop and stall tactic, that may not recover your device but at least, will prevent anyone else from using it.

Personal Data

We all have security, but the story of security is that it is anything but safe. How often do you hear about supposed data leaks and hacks? Now you have the ability to remotely wipe any sensitive data from your device. That way you will prevent anyone from selling or using your information or personal contacts. That has to be a major bonus. It would be a good idea to use cloud storage as a backup for your files anyway. But being able to wipe your personal data will just make you feel more secure.

Photos and screenshots.

A great way of capturing the one image that you don’t want to see but have to. This device will take an isight photo of the thief! Brilliant and hard evidence if it is needed. Live CCTV footage of an intruder is often vague and grainy. It’s difficult to make out details. But a mug shot is priceless! There have been some creative uses of social media with this facility. An app with this facility should be in any top seasonal list.

A personal message to the thief.

How many times have victims of theft wished they could say something to the perpetrator? Well, now they can. You can have a personal message not just delivered but spoken to the criminal who has your device. There might be no shame in them, but how satisfying that you know you can issue a warning. They say most theft is not personal, but this allows to make your revenge exactly that.

Of course we all wish that our devices were safe but this is simply not the way things are. Using tech to track the thief, identify them and even speak to them is surely a long step in the right direction.