How it works
Installation
During installation, you will receive an account at https://www.undercovercenter.com. You can then login to this account to view the locations of your Macs, iPhones and iPads(1).
Routine checks
When your Mac is not stolen, no information is transferred from your Mac to our servers. If you prefer, however, you can set Undercover to transmit its location every time your Mac starts up.
In case of theft
As soon as your Mac is stolen, you login to your Undercover account at https://www.undercovercenter.com and you mark your Mac as stolen.
The first phase
The next time your stolen Mac goes online (using dial-up, WiFi, ethernet, Bluetooth, ...) it will notice that it is flagged as stolen. This will initiate the first phase, in which Undercover will send geographical information based on the built-in Skyhook Wireless technology, the same technology used in the iPhone and iPod Touch. This will enable us to accurately locate your stolen Mac within a 10-20 meter range. In addition, Undercover transmits network information, screenshots and iSight pictures. You can view all this information in your account at https://www.undercovercenter.com. Together with law enforcement, we work to recover the Mac.
Plan B
If law enforcement fails to recover the stolen Mac - which is quite rare given the huge amount of information we provide them with - you can switch on plan B.
In this mode, Undercover will simulate a screen failure, slowly making the Mac's screen unusable. At this point, we think the thief has two options: to send the computer to a reseller for repair, or to get rid of it by selling it on the Net.
In either case, Undercover will block the Mac and show a full-screen message. This message can be fully customized by the user and when dismissed, this message will instantly reappear. Additionally, your Mac will start shouting at the highest volume level, using its built-in text-to-speech capabilities. You have full control over plan B and what message is displayed.
Recovery
Because of the message Undercover displays, technicians will quickly notice that the Mac has been stolen. As soon as you get back your Mac, simply report it found on https://www.undercovercenter.com. Your Mac will immediately start to behave normally, as if nothing happened.
You want to secure your Mac but you don't want it to affect your Mac's performance. Don't fear: Undercover has a very small memory footprint and it consumes almost no CPU resources. In fact, Undercover uses about half the memory of one (1!) dashboard widget. So don't expect to see a performance hit.