[ax0n]

Everywhere I go, I see people who look at confidential information on laptops that are facing a crowdfull of eyeballs. Better yet, many of them get up and leave for a smoke or a piss without locking their screen, leaving not only the juicy bits there for all to read but corporate hardware unattended and ripe for the picking. I also hear people divulge way too much information in public (usually while talking on a phone) such as routing numbers, credit card details and the like. People need more than a privacy screen. It's as if situational awareness is some kind of lost art.

[Groxx]

How often is it exploited? Are preventative measures, which necessarily get in your way at some times to some degree, worth it given that probability?

[ax0n]

http://www.google.com/search?q=stolen+laptop&tbs=nws:1

[sorbus]

We're talking about information being stolen via evesdropping or looking over shoulders, not by physically stealing the media the information is in. Linking to the google news results for "stolen laptop" is therefor irrelevant.

[ax0n]

"leaving not only the juicy bits there for all to read but corporate hardware unattended and ripe for the picking." was indeed one of the threats I mentioned, and it happens all the time. It's relevant to at least part of the discussion. "Shoulder Surfing" is very low-tech. How often it's exploited for personal gain is anyone's guess. Is it really that hard to hit Windows-L when you have to step away for a moment? To lower your voice (or better yet, find a better time or place) before yelling your account numbers into that mobile phone of yours despite the fact that you're in a quiet coffee shop? To take one of the many open seats where your back is to a wall before you spent hours upon hours poring through corporate IP on that massive 18" laptop screen? Sure,it's a trade-off sometimes. It's not always quiet and the good "privacy friendly" seating isn't always available, and sometimes you forget to lock your screen but I see stuff that boggles my mind almost daily.

[qohen]

"I also hear people divulge way too much information in public...such as routing numbers, credit card details and the like...People need more than a privacy screen."

Would you believe...that technology to deal with this problem was actually invented in the sixties (for the intelligence community)?

And, while the original version was bulky, a portable version does exist. No doubt it could be updated for the 21st century.

Training Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUoT0a9Rkac&NR=1

(There's a wikipedia page about this tech also, if you care to look).