Techie2000
11-16-2002, 05:35 PM
I recently read an interesting article in the New York Times (they want $3 to read it online now) where they talk about how prosecutors are able to use the defendants Palm Pilots as evidence in a case and get them sentenced. For example one guy was an identity theft, kept a memo on each of his victims with information such as SSNs and addresses, with ToDo tasks such as pick up checks from office supply store. They said that people tend to be brutally honest with their PDAs, even more so than their journals/diaries. Often people do not think about how unsecure their PDA is if it gets into someone elses hands. Many times when people have their desktop locked down harder than Fort Knox, their passwords are all stored in their PDA which then the Police are able to use to get into the computer and get even more evidence. Maybe purchasing a secure PDA (http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7145548309.html) wouldn't be a bad idea after all. So I'm curious for all you PDA toting people here, how much information do you really have in your PDA? Maybe now you might consider trying out that passcode feature that you always thought would be too much of a nuisance. After all, all it takes is having it slip out of your pocket at an airport and an identity theft would have everything they need. I've actually read that many PDAs display ownership information on startup, and in addition to name and address, people will offer a reward in the ownership information for the safe return. So when the person who finds it turns it on, they'lll be more likely to try to return it then keep it...