How Absolute Recovers Missing Gadgets

The NY Times had put a great article this week entitled "On the Trail of the Missing Gadget." Of course, Absolute Software’s Computrace / LoJack products fall into this category of "missing gadgetry retrieval", so to speak. The article does a great job of generalizing how these technologies and services work, and how absolutely easy it is for the end user. The software just sits there until you need it – then we do all the work to help retrieve your missing gadget if it does go missing! Simple!

With the case of more advanced technology, like we employ at Absolute, the recovery is aided by services such as GPS, keystroke captures, or by internet connections to gather evidence and help determine where the lost device is being used. At Absolute, our recovery team also continues the process until the point when the device is recovered. This is by far the safest route, as you, the customer, never come in contact with the criminals. This also enables law enforcement agencies to prosecute those responsible for thefts.

John Livingston, CEO of Absolute, explains why:

"We will purposefully never reveal a location to a consumer customer. We won’t do it. Once you declare that it’s lost or stolen, we take control over the location at that point. We purposely keep some safe distance between the end user and the thief."

Absolute employs a team of 40 investigators with experience in law enforcement. This team then works closely with local law enforcement agencies to recover stolen devices. If you have sensitive data on your device, you have the option to trigger a remote delete of that data. We’re also working on a way to permanently disable the computers, which will hopefully be another deterrent to theft.

You can learn more about the Absolute recovery process here.