A police report was filed with Detective J. S. Turner of the Fairfax County Police Department. They tried tracing the phone number that the thief had called from, but it mapped to a pre-paid SIM card. They tried tracking the IP address from the emails but that led them nowhere as well. Eric gave up and continued with his move believing he would never see his camera again. Then he heard about CameraTrace, he searched his stolen camera’s serial number and found several photos that were taken just weeks after it was stolen, posted on Flickr.

The photos were of a couple driving and smoking marijuana while driving in their car, apparently on their way to a concert. The Flickr profile provided additional information, we assisted police by providing additional information on the suspect including phone numbers, addresses, social media profiles and several other photos of the suspect including photos of him holding a gun and more photos of illegal drugs. We also found more photos taken by the suspect with several other cameras which were also provided to Fairfax County Police Department.

David found CameraTrace.com and contacted us, he uploaded several photos and we was able to extract valuable information assisting the detective working on the case to track the stolen camera down on Craigslist. The police setup a sting operation and recovered the camera at a McDonalds, along with other stolen property from the hotel. Not only did David get his camera back, but the wedding photos were still on the camera. GadgetTrak not only helped recover a stolen camera, but a lot of other stolen property and more importantly priceless memories of a couple’s special day.

Doral police were able to recover the camera as well as lenses and memory card with priceless photos.

Immediately after staff realized the phone was stolen they activated GadgetTrak before they called police. Once activated we tracked the perpetrator to an Applebees nearby. The police moved in, once they pulled into the Applebees parking lot, the perpetrator ran leaving the newly purloined phone behind.

The police are still investigating the theft and now know who the thief is. The entire recovery took less than 2 hours from theft to recovery thanks to GadgetTrak Mobile Security, which is a new record for us. The Sprint store was able to act quickly, enabling tracking themselves and were able to provide the GPS coordinates to police over the phone as they changed.

The fact that GadgetTrak provides actionable intelligence right when the crime takes place has proven to be a significant factor in the recovery process. We are able to provide police with information immediately without requiring search warrants, or subpoena’s which in this case would have caused significant delay with today being President’s Day the process would not have started until tomorrow after which the phone would be long gone.

Mobile privacy is something that we hear at GadgetTrak anticipated and worried about early on. GadgetTrak Mobile Security uploads your photos and contacts to our servers, however we encrypt the data on your device with a privacy key that you choose with AES 246 bit encryption before data is transmitted over a secure connection. This model of backup is often referred to as “host proof” backup where not even we have access to our customer’s data. For example if we were subpoenaed for back up data by a government agency all we could provide is an encrypted blob, only our customer has the key to decrypt the data.

This approach helps ensure the privacy of our customers on several levels, first by not even allowing any employees access to the data. This ensures that your data is not used for any other purposes and ensures your data is kept private from ANY prying eyes. Second, if our systems were compromised the damage would be minimal as an attacker would not be able to do much with the encrypted data. This is just one step we have taken to help ensure the privacy and security of our customers, if you have questions regarding how we secure your data feel free to contact us.

One of the photos found that was taken by the stolen camera

People usually don’t file police reports as they assume they will never see their device again, which was generally true, with a recovery rate of around 3% on average. Burglary is one of the hardest crimes to solve due to the lack of evidence. However, with new technology such as GadgetTrak these odds are increasingly in the victims favor. Before police can act on any evidence that GadgetTrak provides a police report must be filed this is true for all device types. If you have a device stole file a police report!

Not only does GadgetTrak provide location information for the phone, but also backs up all data loaded on the phone such as photos and contacts. Many times location is not enough for police to act, particularly as services such as Find My Phone from Apple have been known to be inaccurate, leading police to not trust just location data alone. The thief synched the phone with his contacts and working with the police were able to identify the suspects identity. We were able to identify the suspects parents, tattoo artist, dentist amongst others. The data provided to law enforcement allowed them to quickly identify a suspect they knew very well. This is the second recovery we have had for the Sprint chain and given the amount of thieves that target these stores as more expensive phones are released, it won’t be the last.

We are happy to announce the launch of CameraTrace. Formerly in beta as "GadgetTrak Serial Search," the tool is an advanced search engine that allows users to find images taken by a specific camera with just the serial number. The technology helps users track down stolen cameras as well as monitor copyrighted photos online.

CameraTrace now provides premium services including the ability to register a camera and receive real-time notifications when new images are found. Also included in the one-time $10 premium service fee is a metallic "Lost & Found Tag" with a unique serial number that provides an easy way for someone who finds a lost camera to get in touch with the owner. The tag also serves as a warning to would-be-thieves that the device is registered with the system.

John Heller recovered
his stolen camera after having it stolen more than a year prior thanks to CameraTrace.

The technology has already helped many track down their stolen cameras; crimes that would have otherwise gone unsolved. One such case allowed professional photographer John Heller to recover his $9,000 camera after having it stolen from him while on assignment a year prior. Using CameraTrace, he was able to find images captured by his camera a year after it was stolen. The camera had been sold twice, first on Craigslist and then on eBay. The evidence not only got Heller’s camera back, but also a stash of other stolen property being fenced. You can read more about the amazing recovery on TechCrunch and Gizmodo as well as on our blog.

The CameraTrace search engine uses a proprietary technology to scan photo sharing websites and extracts embedded serial numbers from images. The powerful grid computing technology has scanned and analyzed more than 5 billion images from the popular photo sharing site Flickr, consisting of all photos uploaded to the site from 2006 to the present, as well as images from other popular photo sharing sites.The system has identified more than 300 different high-end camera models across multiple manufacturers including Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Kodak that embed the unique camera serial numbers in the images the capture.

The new CameraTrace tool will have a significant impact on the theft of cameras, as thieves will now need to be concerned with the fact that a camera they steal today can be traced back to them in the future if someone uploads photos from it to the Internet. The company is working with law enforcement to scan serial numbers from older camera theft cases, as well as research other crimes the tool may help solve.

Here at GadgetTrak we have a long history of innovation and developing custom tracking and data protection technologies. Our patented technology is currently embedded in FLIR thermal imaging cameras, allowing them to be tracked if they are stolen as well as in assisting with export controls. We have also pioneered tracking and data protection technologies for laptops and smartphones that have led to amazing recoveries.

We will be at this year’s CES. To setup a meeting to learn more about our technologies at the show, please contact us at info@gadgettrak.com.

The Longmont police acted quickly. Using the information provided by GadgetTrak, they were able to identify the suspect and went in with a search warrant this morning. Nathan’s laptop was recovered, the others (which did not have GadgetTrak installed on them) are still missing, however. The police were able to get additional information from the suspect that may lead to the recovery of the other stolen property. The investigation is ongoing.

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GadgetTrak was featured in this month’s Forbes Magazine, along with a great photo of our founder and CEO Ken Westin. The article “To Shame A Thief” by Kashmir Hill discusses the growing market for software such as GadgetTrak as well as the privacy risks this technology can introduce if not implemented properly. The article shows how the technology can be helpful to recover stolen devices using one of our latest recoveries as an example where we recovered several stolen phones for a Sprint store.

The more negative stories where this type of technology has been implemented irresponsibly dealt with one of our competitors who provide their employees with backdoors into customers’ computers. This is something we always felt was highly invasive and not needed when we can rely on other more advanced methods such as Wi-Fi positioning and web camera capture to locate the device and identify the suspect.

Although GadgetTrak does not have the largest number of customers, we believe we provide a better level of service for customers who are concerned about their privacy and security. GadgetTrak is one of the only products in our space who cover every major platform for laptops and smartphones, as well as allow users full control of their data, how it is used, stored and delivered.