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Note: Since this review appeared, Blackline GPS has changed its price structure.  The GPS Snitch now sells for $299, and tracking is unlimited for $14.99 per month or $169.99 per year (the activation fee is now waived with this option).

The high-tech revolution has given us many things, but it has taken away something important: a good chunk of our security. But if our expensive gear and our identities are now vulnerable, high tech is giving back some security in the form of more sophisticated protection of data and more authoritative theft-recovery products.

But there is a catch: They can cost you. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, depending on the kind of person you are — paranoid, jealous or just sub-clinically neurotic.

The boldest name for a security product has to be GPS Snitch, a palm-sized box from Calgary-based Blackline GPS. It tells you the location, via Google Maps and the Global Positioning System, of your car should it have gone walkabout. It will of course also trace a wandering spouse or a wayward child.

The Snitch combines three critical elements: GPS, a radio that transmits its location via the always-on GSM network — the same data network used by cellphones — and a motion detector. Set up an account with Blackline, put the Snitch in your car, and it will send you text or e-mail messages so you can trace its travels, which are triggered by a motion sensor. You can also track it on Blackline's website.

• Do you protect your gadgets (such as your laptop or iPod) and personal data with GPS tracking devices or some sort of software security? Answer the poll question at Globetechnology.com

Its rechargeable battery will last about seven days, though it can be hardwired to your car's electrical system using an extra kit. Its radio and GPS system are powerful enough to work if the Snitch is in the trunk, though it will fail in more challenging places, such as underground parking garages.

Yes, it's a powerful little device that immediately conjures up opportunities for abuse — Wired magazine calls it "mildly evil" — but for people trying to track an elderly and confused parent, say, it is a blessing.

What happens, though, once your car has been stolen and you've located it in the tenderloin part of town, probably in a chop shop? Do you march into a police station, brandishing your laptop and demand the desk sergeant do something about it right away? The Snitch is not backed up by any recovery service.

The first time I tried it, in my home, the Snitch scared me — its default location, for some reason, is just west of Hibbing, Minn. When I asked it to locate me for the first time, it moved from Hibbing to about 25 metres south-southeast of my home, apparently in the passenger seat of an SUV in a neighbour's parking spot (well, the SUV that was there when the satellite image was taken). That's pretty close, but it's not foolproof, especially if someone you're tracking goes into an apartment building.

The Snitch also entails extra expenses, including "tracking credits" — one credit is used every time you connect to the Snitch to find out where it is (the first 100 are free). Plans (this is, after all, part cellphone) include a yearly fee of $169.99, or a series of monthly fees ranging in price from $9.99 to $25.99 per month. And since it works on the GSM network, Blackline has to pass on to you the costs of connecting to the GSM carriers.

And it can get expensive just learning its tricks (there's no manual). Ask the service to track a car continuously, and it will do so every five seconds; each hit costs one credit. If the car is taken for a 20-minute drive, that's 240 credits. It can add up.

All this begs a serious question — does it make sense to spend close to $600 for the first year waiting for your car to be stolen? Or is that price considered a trifle if you're trying to track an elderly and confused parent or a piece of valuable but wayward luggage?

Interestingly, Blackline also offers two other services that are less based on fear of violation: Blip, for "geo-social interaction," and Loner, a safety device for single employees in the field.

Blip is a free downloadable service for GPS-enabled BlackBerry phones or with 8700-series BlackBerrys used in conjunction with the Snitch. Blip allows workers, friends, and family to track each other — a feature Blackline calls "Share your where." The user selects a partner by sending an invitation by e-mail; the partner doesn't need a smartphone, but can track you via the Blackline website. Blip works by publishing your location automatically every 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes; you can turn the tracking system off whenever you want.

Loner GPS is designed as a safety device for lone workers who might have to go into hazardous areas. A unit that looks much like the Snitch, it will send an automatic alert if it senses a lack of motion, suggesting the worker might have become incapacitated. There is also a panic button that allows workers to send a message for help.

Rather than tracking cars or people, a Vancouver-based company focuses on one thing: mobile computers. As notebooks and netbooks get smaller and lighter, they become much more attractive targets for thieves. And loaded as they're likely to be with sensitive data, they need greater protection than before.

Computrace LoJack for Laptops, from Absolute Software Corp., is a satisfyingly complete system for protecting laptops. Not only does it tattle on a thief's location, but it can erase data on the purloined computer. If the laptop is not recovered, at least the data cannot be used for identity theft. And if the laptop is not recovered, Absolute offers a $1,000 consolation prize to the owner.

This system has been so successful that it has been embedded as firmware in on-board chips by laptop makers such as Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic, Toshiba and even Apple — yes, there is a version for Mac laptops. It cannot be removed without destroying the entire computer. The technology has also recently been ported for use in smartphones using the Windows Mobile operating systems. Called Computrace Mobile, it's designed for corporate customers who want to manage their companies' handheld devices.

LoJack for Laptops — Absolute licensed the name LoJack from the LoJack Corp. of Massachusetts, which makes a stolen-vehicle recovery system — is basically a software package with an annual fee. Once installed, it calls Absolute Software's Vancouver offices, registering your laptop's serial number, its basic configuration, your name and a password.

Should the laptop be stolen, Absolute will put the machine on a "wanted" list; when the laptop next goes on line, it will pop up on the Absolute recovery team's screens. If it's connecting via dial-up modem, LoJack will trace the phone number; if it comes from a broadband connection, it will provide an IP address so the recovery team can contact the service provider and negotiate to find the address associated with that IP address.

The secret sauce in this service is Absolute's recovery team, most of them former Vancouver cops who know how to talk to other cops. They tip off the local constabulary with the address where the laptop last called from. If you think most police will yawn at the prospect of recovering someone's laptop, Absolute counters by pointing out that police have a low success rate recovering stolen property, and a tip like this improves their solved-case records. Sometimes the location they're sent to is a criminal operation, and the cops can land a much bigger prize.

More to the point, LoJack for Laptops installs itself in such a way that it will survive even if a thief erases the hard disk and reformats it. So it will stay on your laptop … forever. It's a little scary considering Absolute can still erase the hard disk remotely — albeit only by your orders.

A cheaper way to secure data is offered by McAfee Anti-Theft, a new software package that essentially wraps up your sensitive data in an envelope of strong 256-bit encryption. The user interface allows you to create any number of "vaults," represented by a reassuring icon of a safe, which remains closed until you unlock it with a password, at which point the safe is shown with the door open. To store a file there, drag and drop it in.

The software can erase traces of a file after it's been moved; this is done by holding the shift key while using the mouse to drag it to the vault.

But that's not necessarily enough; you must be continually vigilant about erasing ghost versions of a file than has been moved to a vault — these can be seen when using data-recovery tools that can display even partially deleted files. McAfee, naturally, recommends you to permanently erase deleted files using a file-shredding program such as … McAfee Shredder.

Of course all this effort can be defeated by using a too-obvious password; it doesn't matter whether the encryption is 256-bit or 512-bit, it's vulnerable if the password is, say, similar to the log-in password. But then McAfee doesn't really recommend using it as a place to store family pictures or e-mail jokes; the software is just cumbersome enough to dissuade using it for frivolous storage. Instead, McAfee recommends it for storing such long-term things as wills, financial documents, social-insurance numbers and passwords.

Passwords?

Password-protecting your list of passwords is one step further into security hell.

Well, that's the price you have to pay to feel safe.