I blogged recently about losing and finding a camera. At the time, I said
a global database of gadgets would be absurd
It seems, however, that a national database of valuables is not! — at least in the UK. And there is a global database of serial numbered items: CheckMEND.
In the process of moving the last of my passwords from TiddlyFolio to Lastpass I encountered immobilise.com.
It was an online database in which one could record cellphone IMEI numbers, potentially facilitating return of lost or stolen phones.
I couldn’t log in to my old account. It turned out to have been lost, somehow — though I still have the phone.
Immobilise is now a giant database of stuff!
We all have too much, I know.
(I saw this reminder recently: The Story of Stuff. Actually, I saw a few minutes of it. I didn’t have all day.)
Anyway, you register, then you enter details of your stuff. Or you upload them using an Excel file, a CSV or tab delimited file.
Immobilise: a giant database of stuff
If you lose an item you can just log in and report the loss (see the image above).
Databases of people decay, that is they accumulate invalid records, at a rate of about 2% a year. For valuables, especially electronics, and above all phones, I’d guess it’s a much larger percentage. And however large, this database surely contains only a fraction the records it could.
Is the whole idea a bit creepy? (Creepier than a supermarket loyalty card?) Or is the problem that its use is not universal, with objects being associated with owners at the point of sale?
The national DNA database has had a lot of publicity in the area of retention of records, but this database has had not had any that I can recall. I last heard about it more than 3 years ago, entered one record, then forgot about it. And it forgot about me.
What’s needed is a way of fingerprinting stuff when we buy it, claiming it digitally, without sacrificing privacy entirely.
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Thanks for using immobilise. I’m quite concerned you think we’ve forgotten you though! 3 years ago immobilise did not support registration. It was an advisory site about property crime. We added registration when we took the site over and merged it with our MEND (Mobile Equipment National Database) system. Would be glad to assist directly if you think you registered on immobilise following that merge. Immobilise is the natural home for all serial numbered property and is the only system of property registration where the police will find you if they recover your lost or stoken property.
Regards
Les Gray
Director, Recipero Ltd.
I think I assumed wrongly that I registered the item (a new phone) when it was new. It was sometime later, but I don’t know how much later. As it was only one record, and I’ve now created a new account, I’m not worried. Thanks anyway!
If you don’t mind my saying so, the cost of items in the shop seems very, very high — particularly for things like labels. I appreciate that there are services behind these, nevertheless…