How To: Using PrivateEye for the first time

Some first-time users try some pretty unnatural scenarios and get some unexpected results.  I’m going to explain some of the pitfalls that cause head-scratching, and tell you how to run your own first evaluation.

Unnatural Act #1:  Eavesdropper breathing in your ear

Sometimes people will install the product and immediately call their friends over to make sure it catches eavesdroppers.  “Hey, it’s not catching you, what’s going on?” is the typical complaint.

Here’s the answer: in 99% of these cases you’ve pulled your friends in close to the screen and said something like “Try to look at my screen now”.  That’s a pretty unnatural scenario for a real eavesdropper.  If it happened to you in real life you would know someone was there and you’d do something about it.

Unnatural Act #2:  The instantaneous sneak

The other common case is where you move out of the way and let your friends view the screen, expecting that PrivateEye will immediately lock them out.  When it doesn’t it sure does seem like there is something wrong.

What’s happened here is another one of those unnatural scenarios: you were just there a second ago and now there is an “eavesdropper” taking your place.  The default settings in PrivateEye don’t react to this because we know you were just there.  That means you know the eavesdropper is there too.  It’s just not a case that happens in normal everyday use.

How to run your own trial

The main thing is to use the product they way you would normally expect to use your laptop.  In day-to-day use you’re going to find people walking up behind you and looking at your display.  PrivateEye will catch them – anywhere up to 15 feet away depending on your webcam.  And really, those are the ones you need help catching – not the guys breathing in your ear.   On a regular basis you are going to want to get up and leave your desk – and don’t want your nosy colleagues looking at your display when you’re gone.  Again, PrivateEye will stop them too – if you’ve been away for more than a few seconds when they start trying.

Why not be more aggressive about catching bad-guys?

PrivateEye can be set to be much more aggressive about security.   For starters, you can select the “High” security preset.  Or you can go into custom and change a number of settings to prevent even the unnatural cases I mentioned above.    For example, you can set it to periodically check the faces at the screen every 5 seconds to make sure that only authorized people are present.  That’s a great setting to use when you really care about keeping your documents secure, but it’s not necessary for everyone.

We made the product easy to use for the majority of people in most practical settings with the preset “Normal” security option.  The challenge is that normal mode isn’t quite the same as “check-out-this-really-cool-product-I-just-installed” mode.  We’ve chosen the defaults to balance convenience with the right amount of security for typical daily use.

I hope this helps make sense of the product behavior for your trial run.  For “super-cool-impress-your-friends” mode go ahead and play with the settings, or stay tuned for a future post where I tell you how I set it when I’m on the road.