Recover what is rightfully yours

Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief.

Silent but deadly

Prey uses a remote activation system which means the program sits silently in your computer until you actually want it to run. If so, it gathers all the information and sends it to your Prey web control panel or directly to your mailbox. The thief will never know his movements are being watched.

And because there’s always hope

You may be thinking “but what’s the point of this program if the guy will probably just format the thing right away?” and you’re completely right. However, experience shows that thieves tend to look in stolen computers for valuable information, so there’s actually a chance you can catch the guy (and there’s even some successful cases!).
Besides, if by using Prey you can keep alive a tiny bit of hope that you’ll recover your computer, isn’t it already worth it?

Wifi autoconnect

Prey checks if there’s an active internet connection to send the information. If not, it will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available. This gives you a better chance to locate the device.

Geo-location aware

Prey uses wifi hotspots to locate devices geographically. This not only includes lat/lng coordinates, but also an altitude indicator — yes, that means you can also know (aprox.) in which floor the computer is.

Lightweight

Yes, this is a feature. Prey is written in bash which means it has virtually no dependencies, only what its different modules need to work. This also means Prey is portable and should run in just about any computer.

Modular architecture

You can add, remove and configure the different parts of Prey as you wish. Prey is composed by modules, each one performing a specific task, so you can have it as you like.

Powerful report system

Get the list of current running programs, the recently modified files, active connections, running uptime, take a screenshot of the running desktop or even a picture of the guy who’s using the computer.

Messaging/alert system

You can alert the user he’s being chased at by sending messages which’ll appear on screen. You can also trigger alarms to make the message clear not only to him but also to whomever is nearby. Be careful with this one!

Module auto-installer

You don’t have to reinstall Prey to keep up with the latest and greatest modules. We keep a repository from where Prey will fetch what it needs to get the job done.

In plain English

Prey wakes up at a specified interval and checks a URL to see if it should gather the traces and send the report. If the URL exists, Prey will simply go to sleep again. Basically, that’s it.
However, there’s two ways to run Prey: synchronized with the web control panel or in a standalone fashion.

1. Prey + Control Panel

In this case, you manage your computer state and Prey’s configuration through a web page, which also keeps track of all reports sent by Prey from your device. This is the method we recommend for most users, since you don’t have to worry about the URL thingy and you can actually “talk” to Prey by triggering different behaviours.

2. Prey Standalone

In standalone mode, the report goes directly to your inbox but it’s up to you to generate the URL to activate Prey. In this case you don’t need to sign up in Prey but you’ll have to set up the different modules by hand if you want to tune things up. This is actually the way Prey worked before version 0.3 was released.
Of course, Prey needs to have an active Internet connection to send the information. If the computer isn’t connected, Prey will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available.
In Linux/Mac, Prey can (and should) be run as root so it doesn’t depend on an active user session to run, but only on a successful boot.

Download

You can download prey here