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12,000 Laptops Lost Weekly At Airports

Posted by timothy on from the dignity-lost-even-more-often dept.

kthejoker writes "Apparently companies are even worse about losing our data than we suspected. From the article: 'According to a study of 106 major US airports and 800 business travelers published by the Ponemon Institute and Dell Computer, about 12,000 laptops are lost in airports each week. Only 30 percent of travelers ever recover the lost devices. Nearly half of the travelers say their laptops contain customer data or confidential business information.' Kinda scary..."

2 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Miniscule by mrroot · · Score: 5, Informative

    That is nothing compared to the amount of passenger's luggage that is lost daily by the airlines.

    But still, what kind of moron loses their laptop while traveling? I can't imagine letting it out of my sight or even out of my reach.

    --
    I Heart Sorting Networks
  2. OK, so I'm looking at the actual report now... by spoco2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's here

    First up:
    "Laptop loss frequencies were collected from a confidential field survey as either a direct weekly estimate or as a range variable as reported by airport officials. Exact loss frequencies were typically not calculated or available for review."

    It's all just averages using methods that are vague.

    Then... 22% of these lost in the major airports are recovered before the flight... (15% in the minor) but they include all of these laptops that were lost for a number of minutes.

    Then there are 9% (Major) and 20% (Minor) that are recovered after the flight.

    Come on, we're talking most likely badly taken figures in the first place, and then including laptops that aren't really lost at all.