Review: FireFound Add-On for Firefox

Have you ever been paranoid about your laptop (and even desktop) being stolen, lost or teleported away from the last place you thought you had it? Never fear! FireFound is here!

Click here to visit add-on page.

I was browsing the Firefox add-ons once again to see which ones worked with the new beta, and stumbled upon this one, so I took a closer look. I installed the add-on and proceeded to sign up (as soon as it restarts you will be prompted) for the service and then you can log in by following the directions given. Once you do so you can see your location by clicking on the location link, or if you’re signed up for the premium service ($1 a month) you can access the home locations feature which “are locations that you designate as safe for your computer to be in. If your location changes, but it is within range of a home location, you will not receive an e-mail alert about the change”. Under the data link you can activate data protection (which you should only use once you realize your computer has been stolen) which forces whoever is using the browser to enter a password within a time limit otherwise the data you specified will be erased. This is definitely useful if you allow your password manager to save your information (though you should never allow it to remember my bank log-ins etc…). You can download your location information of up to 30 days prior, erase that same location data, and if you upgrade, you can extend the location information log to a year. Beware that any account that hasn’t pinged the FireFound server in the past 30 days will be deleted.

Note: If the location page doesn’t display your information right away, restart the browser and it should update (courtesy of the developer Christopher Finke).

Since I’m running this program on a desktop computer, I won’t really have a chance to test it out further unless of course I somehow lose it or move. But all in all, this program sets out to do exactly what it is supposed to. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone who either owns a laptop or even someone who owns a desktop and lives in a dorm. Of course you won’t be able to utilize these options unless the person who took your computer is connected in some way to the internet, but the point of this program is to protect your online data — the GPS feature seems to be just a nice plus. If you’re really worried about your computer being stolen or lost I would suggest looking into some sort of GPS device and some more comprehensive security software to install on your system. I may install this program on my laptop and wander around town a bit to to see how that works and if so I will update this post.

Rating: 5 out of 5.