And what will happen if thief wipe out hard disc and re-install OS?

@Areikun; It would be very unlikely for a thief to format and reinstall the OS b/c they'd want to get up and running with a computer instantly without having to go through all that trouble of having to reinstall the OS.

This app looks like it really does as it says on the box and looks like my sort of tool that can protect the computer from theives, if they don't know anything about Mac's.

With all the spyware, keyloggers, and privacy issues out there, how is one to know that this program does not also send info to it's originator. There are a lot of programs out there that are distributed by what seem to be legit programmers that give what seems to be legit info which is misleading and a shell type set-up when they submit these programs for review. How can you be sure, especially with a program that does what this one does by it's very nature. Has the staff at Softpedia the time to decompile this and all other programs. FREEBIE BEWARE!!!! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT DOES WHAT THIS ONE DOES.

@Quantum

It's open source, you can check the code anytime.
http://github.com/tomas/prey

I have the same concerns as Quantum! How can a free program afford to do something such as this! How do I know these people aren't stealing my info, and spying on me for god knows what reason?! Sounds a little shady if you ask me!

In regards to the concerns of Tatiana and Elizabeth:

Open source doesn't only mean free, it also means the source code of the program is for anyone to be seen. This means it's pretty easy for anyone who knows a bit about to programming to find out if they program does steal data or not. For example, on linux the program is a simple script that gets called every twenty minutes. The script checks if it should send the data, and if it sees that it has to, it does. Anyone who knows bash scripting can check that, and even if you don't; it's not that hard.

You can even make it run as a standalone program. That way all reports are emailed to you by the laptop you are running it on. This means nothing is going through their servers so they wouldn't even be able to spy on you if they wanted to.

The guys who make and maintain this for free do so because they earn money from pro plans. You can upgrade a free account to a paid one to get some extras. (like SSL support for everything) They'd be out of business pretty quick if they went around stealing data.

If you are wary of installing programs, be wary of installing closed source freeware. Software like prey is perfectly fine, I just hope I'll never need it. I can't give you more then my word, so you'll have to make your own decisions though. (Sorry about my english, I'm Dutch)

I too afraid to install these type of programme as once we install it,it starts his work to spy our information.

Most of the these type of prgrms are very difficult to uninstall too...

I am impressed its working but pls explain how relaiable it is..

It only spies your information once you mark the property as missing. No data will be sent across the line (or air for that matter) if you just use the laptop like you normally did.

It's easy to install and uninstall. My advice would be just to try it once on a pc you don't use anymore, just to see how it works. You'd be surprised.

People should be concerned here. They say this is open source, but have plans to commercialize, so those who have helped develop the solution could be left in the cold. They use alot of other people's open source projects here so if they do charge there will be some serious legal backlash.

Regarding data security, there is no guarantee that they are not spying on you. This project is managed by one person, not a company, who is based in Chile. All of the devices are talking to a server this person manages. They do not use SSl for logins, so there is no encryption between the device and server either. If they overlooked basic security such as this you should be concerned for your privacy.

I bought a laptop on e-bay almost 3 years ago. I took it in for repairs at the Apple Store yesterday and, as they were analyzing the hard drive, I got the Preyproject message. In 3 years of constant use I have never gotten this message before and haven't gotten it since. It seems to me that a program like this couldn't be very useful if it only notifies you after that long a time. It would have been nice to have gotten it right after I bought the computer so that I could have gotten in touch with e-bay and recovered my money. I sent an e-mail to the preyproject and haven't received a reply yet.

Just worked like a charm for my brother! His girlfriends computer was stolen and he tracked it down to the house where someone bought it from Craigslist... They recovered the computer and busted the thief!!! AWESOME :)

It's completely useless if you locked your laptop and they need a password to get in to even trigger the scheduled updates. If the thief knew your password (or, it was stolen without first setting the password lock), you have the features available to you

That's why you are given the option to create a "honeytrap" Guest account on the computer.

Does Prey work on PC's ?

On PC, there is a better tool call LockItTight. It provide more features and more stable than Prey.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Lockdown/LockItTight.shtml

Im not that computer savvy, but can someone please clear something up for me: if comment #4.1 by allard said it's easy to install/uninstall...can the thief just uninstall the program if he knows to look for it?

I too am considering installing this software. I was just reading the FAQs on the the developers website and it actually covers your question - a thief couldn't uninstall the app (assuming he could find it, since it's hidden at root level) without your administrator's password. However, it then stipulates that it would be possible for the thief to wipe the disk if you don't add some level of protection to the BIOS/firmware, depending on the OS you use.

While I've come across one case that argues quite strongly against using Prey, due to various bugs and potential loop holes, I can't see that those points are actually valid in a real world example. It was posted by someone who is obviously a hardcore techie and IMHO most of his argument was purely hypothetical. At the end of the day, unless you bolt your computer to some concrete, your going to lose somewhere along the line if it's stolen - whether it be data, personal information or whatever.

The more I look into it, the more I think I'm going to install it... Hope that helps.

My MacBook Pro was stolen and recovered twice with Prey.

#1. I have LoJack and Prey Project installed on my computer. The first time my computer was stolen, there was a "password required" screen whenever the mac was awoken from sleep. Three days later, the computer contacted the monitoring center and snapped 13 pictures of the thief, screenshots of what he was looking at, and his (almost) exact location. I called the police and told them the situation, and forwarded them the information sent to my Prey account. 2 hours later, they had the laptop in their possession. The guy bought it from MY BEST FRIEND on craigslist for $700 when I had bought it a month before for $1,144. Needless to say, he's not my friend anymore. He went to jail for a week and I dropped the charges for $5,000. He was found guilty of Grand Theft and Possession of Stolen Property and would have served 6 years in a federal prison if I didn't settle. LoJack didn't do anything to recover my computer.

#2. After I DJ'ed a party in a college town, I went to the bathroom. I was gone for 2 minutes. My MacBook got jacked out of the open. I reported it to the police department and got a case number. Within 2 hours of me reporting the laptop stolen on my iPhone, I got a report from prey. I forwarded it to the police department as soon as I got it, 13 hours later my laptop was in their possession and the guy was in cuffs. Again, LoJack didn't do * to help me out.

Prey Project has saved my laptop and all my valuable files. I've had my laptop stolen twice and got it back with this free program. I 100% recommend this service, it has saved me so much. This is the best 60 seconds i've ever spent putting software on my computer.

I did a test with 4 of my friends. I enabled prey and let them all use my laptop for an hour each in the light and the dark. None of them noticed the green light go off by the webcam after 4 hours total. Even if the thief notices, it's too late, he's already caught.

A lot of people will bash on this program, saying that it won't help if the OS is reinstalled or the hard drive is swapped. While this may be true, 80% of the time, the thief will be a stupid idiot and not know how to reformat/swap a hard drive, and an average thief will try and get rid of it for some quick cash. This is the best program you can get for free. Lojack costs $40 a year and didn't do * to help me out. The thief never knows its running, and needs you username/password to uninstall it. It's almost impossible to disable the process in the activity monitor unless you know exactly what you're doing.

That's a great review,your best friend sucks!
I'm downloading it and hopefully never need to use it.