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Comment by vizzah | Hacker News Reader

hmm.. for some reason it feels like a viral ad for that Hidden app.

It might seem so, but I would give the benefit of doubt to the poster. A very good friend of mine had a similar experience -- his mac was stolen from his car and he had installed Prey Project (http://preyproject.com/ ) on it -- an open source anti-theft solution. He could get the pictures and location of the person, gave it to Santa Barbara Police, but, alas, they couldn't/didn't do anything. It's been almost 3 months now.

Yeah, why would he publish the guy's face, but blur out his google account info? It smells like an ad to me as well.

Seems to me it could be he doesn't want anyone emailing the guy and tipping him off that the owner knows who has it and that the app is tracking the laptop until it can be recovered.

Its unlikely that any of the guys friends read HN, but its not that unlikely that some idiot seeing the blog post would send some email to the guy that would alert him.

I wondered the same thing. Then I decided I didn't care, and bought it. If it's marketing, it's well done, and it looks like a useful app.

There's actually a better alternative to this... http://preyproject.com/

I have prey on my macbook and tested its functionality by marking the laptop as stolen and can attest that the enduser has no idea that his face is being photographed and screenshots of whatever is going are being taken. Plus its free for up to 3 pcs

Actually, on a MacBook, the green camera light will occasionally blink for a split second while the photo is being taken.

Its definitely an ad. I've seen too much internet to believe the wording of that app pitch is genuine.

Also, I don't even think its possible to drive with a macbook on your knee like that.

I'd be somewhat surprised at an ad campaign depicting a minority as a criminal

That's true of overt ads; ads masquerading as reality have less need to worry about such things.

Thought the same thing.

That would be awesome marketing, but wouldn't that involve intentionally leaving a MacBook to get stolen somewhere in Oakland?

I think it would be a lot easier/cheaper to pay someone to pose as the thief...

Really? Leaving a macbook unattended in Oakland for about 5 minutes doesn't seem that hard.

Versus having a coworker (or actor) take a few photos with it, and never having it stolen?

at the risk of being pedantic; yes.

Just wanted to come back and gloat a little bit. Downvoters, guess you were wrong.

clever advertising if that's the case

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