Services erase private info in case of computer theft

Imagine if someone were to steal your laptop or cell phone. Yourcredit-card numbers, banking information, telephone numbers and otherpersonal data could be disclosed. Today, you can destroy that dataremotely.

If your laptop is stolen, you can notify a service. The softwareon the stolen laptop continually runs in the background. When thecomputer goes online, the service sends a signal to destroy the data.

The crooks still have your laptop, but your personal informationis safe. These programs claim to be undetectable.

Consumers can turn to zTrace's zControl (www.ztrace.com; $40 andup). Say your laptop is stolen. You would call, e-mail or fax zTrace.

The software would mark your laptop as stolen. The next time thethieves go online, files would be deleted. ZTrace also has theability to lock the laptop's keyboard and mouse. And it can display apredefined message to the thief.

There's also Computrace's LoJack for Laptops(www.lojackforlaptops.com). It contacts a monitoring center when thelaptop connects to the Internet. If your laptop is stolen, you notifythe police and Computrace.

When the thief connects to the Internet, the signal sent from yourlaptop is used to determine its location. The company sends thelocation and documentation to support a search warrant to lawenforcement. LoJack for Laptops is subscription-based and starts at$50 for a year term.

Your laptop isn't the only danger. Today's PDAs can carry as muchpersonal and financial information. And they're easier to lose or getswiped.

PDAKill ($10; Pocket PC) and remotePROTECT (Pocket PC 2003 andWindows Mobile 5; $15) allow you to establish a special word orphrase. If the phone or hand-held is stolen, you send it a textmessage from another machine. Both programs are available atwww.scpsoft.com.

Included in the text message is the kill word or phrase. The phoneor hand-held is returned to its original factory condition, and anypersonal data is erased. The programs will also delete data from anystorage cards that are installed.

Palm Treo owners will want to look at Central from BluefishWireless (www.bluefishwirel-ess.com; $15). Central is a suite ofutilities, including the program Kill Pill. Like the other programs,Kill Pill will erase all data after receiving a text message with akill word or phrase.