Hopefully this year, Santa will be placing a MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air under your tree. If you are lucky enough to get one of these laptops, you will quickly realize that they are a hot commodity. So, the last thing you would want is to have someone walk off with it. Other than physically locking down the machine, there is now another way to keep your Mac safe and get some peace of mind. GadgetTrak is a theft recovery and loss prevention solution company specializing in mobile devices. To help keep your MacBook secure, they have released MacTrak, which is the equivalent of a LoJack for your laptop.

MacTrak installs on your machine and uses the built iSight camera and Wi-Fi to help locate and recover your machine. The program allows the user to activate MacTrak from any computer in the world and as long as the stolen Mac is powered and connected to the Internet. It will photograph the perpetrator and geolocate the machine and send this information to a preselected email and also be uploaded to the user’s Flickr account.

Basically, if you own any iteration Mac and run Leopard, then this should be the first program you install on your machine! So let’s get a better look.

MacTrak from GadgetTrak: Advanced Anti-Theft For OS X

Reviewed by: Tomas Ratas

Sponsor: GadgetTrak

MacTrak from GadgetTrak: Advanced Anti-Theft For OSX

GadgetTrak's patent-pending MacTrak for OS X is the most advanced theft recovery solution available for Apple systems.

Advanced Wi-Fi Positioning
MacTrak utilizes advanced wi-fi positioning to provide the accurate location (10-20 meters) of your device in the event of theft, without the need for GPS or additional hardware,

iSight Image Capture & Flickr Integration
When activated MacTrak uses the web camera to capture images of the thief and uploads them with location to your Flickr account, and email.

Privacy Safe & Tamper Proof
MacTrak utilizes privacy-safe tracking technology. All images, location and network data are never sent to us, only to your email and Flickr account . GadgetTrak integrates with the OS X security framework requiring admin privileges to remove and modify its configuration.

MacTrak from GadgetTrak is privacy safe. When you activate tracking for your device a signal is sent to your system, the software then gathers location and network data as well as captures images and emails them directly to you as well as to your Flickr account. Unlike other theft recovery solutions no location information or images are ever sent to GadgetTrak, only to the email and Flickr account you configure. We do not have a monitoring center and we do not have access to the system or files.

No Monitoring Centers & No Backdoors

Traditional theft recovery software requires you to contact the company to activate tracking, all data from your system including location, images, and other data goes directly to them before you get the information. Many of these monitoring centers have access to your system via a backdoor their software installs, enabling them to have access to your files and the ability to install additional software. We feel this is an invasion of privacy, so we design our software to empower users to track and recover their devices with all data collected going directly to them. If you need assistance with recovering the device we are here to help, you can forward the data on to us if you choose or we can work directly with law enforcement.

Simple Web Based Activation
Remote activation is simple. Open a web browser, or use your iPhone to log in and click the tracking button, the next time your system connects to the Internet the software will activate sending data and images to you.

MacTrak from GadgetTrak is activated by logging into your MacTrak.me account and clicking a button to activate tracking. The next time your Mac connects to the Internet the software will activate and start sending you emails with the specific location and network environment of the system, as well as use the camera to take a photo of who is using the system every 30 minutes. No additional password prompts appear and the thief is unaware the software is tracking them.

System Requirements: OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and higher

G4, G5, or Intel Core Processor

MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iBook, PowerBook, Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro

Installation and Testing:

Since MacTrak is a download, there is no packaging to describe. One of the nice things about MacTrak is there are no subscription fees involved! Installation involves opening the DMG file and then starting the MPKG file from the MacTrak folder. In this folder, we find the installer, an uninstaller, the MacTrak Installer Guide, the license and a 30 Day Free Trial of BakUp for OS X. BTW, apparently GadgetTrak does not like the letter ‘C’.

Installation will ask for the License Key which comes with the purchase of the product, your email address and a password which you need to create for your account. The next screen sets up the email account from which tracking emails are sent from and to. The installation guide lists the configuration setup for email accounts from Yahoo and GMail and ISPs – Verizon and Comcast. Next, you will be asked to login to your Flickr account and authenticate it. After this initial setup, the program will install and register.

To change the email and Flickr settings, the MacTrak program can be accessed from the System Preferences screen. However, to make these changes, you will to enter the administrative password. In addition, to remove the program, you will also need to use the administrative password for your Mac.

Now, God forbid, your Mac is stolen; here is how easy it is to track it and hopefully recover it. First, log onto this site - https://gt1.gadgettrak.com. Here you will need to enter your email, password and your authentication key. Now the tracking is activated and MacTrak will start sending emails with the specific location and network environment of the system, as well as use the camera to take a photo of who is using the system every 30 minutes. The thief is unaware this is occurring and helpless to do anything about it.

Here is a visual representation of how MacTrak works:

The ONLY way to circumvent MacTrak is for the thief to erase your hard drive. Luckily, OS X has a built in deterrent to prevent that from occurring. Simply password protect your firmware – here is the link on how it is accomplished - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352. One drawback of the firmware password protection is it requires the password to use the Startup Manager, which is usually accessed by pressing the Option key during startup. If you are like me and use Boot Camp that becomes a bit of a nuisance. But the protection of MacTrak is well worth it.

Also, never try and retrieve your machine by yourself! Always involve the local authorities.

OK, here is an example of MacTrak in action. I enlisted the help of a well known entertainer to act as the thief for this simulation.

So once MacTrak was activated online, I received the following email and Flickr posting. There you have it! Grover from Sesame Street has attempted to steal my MacBook Pro!

We can see on the email and Flickr page that I have received we get an incriminating picture captured by the iSight camera and the External IP address, internal host IP, Username on the Mac, Ethernet ID, Hostname, nearby Wi-Fi networks and the Wi-Fi based latitude and longitude. In addition, GadgetTrak provides links to the location using Google Maps and the the name of the ISP provider of the Wi-Fi network the Mac is using. All this information can help you and the authorities pinpoint your Mac and recover it and hopefully bust the thief.

Summary and Comments:

There is nothing bad to say about this program. It is simple to install and use, does not invade your privacy and can be activated at a moments notice from any internet accessible computer. This program should be the first program you install on your Mac. Plus the license is transferrable to another Mac, so if you get rid of your original machine, you can reinstall it on another Mac.

DragonSteelMods gives the MacTrak from GadgetTrak a 5 out of 5 and our Editor’s Choice award as well.

Pros:

-LoJack for your Mac

-Simple to install and setup

-Thief is unaware it is running

Cons:

-None

I would like to thank GadgetTrak for the chance to review the MacTrak and for their support of DSM.

review#541

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