Someguy (9/3/2008)
Call me old-fashioned, but I usually put a tag with my name and phone number on all my bags when I travel. One time I left a carry-on bag on the ground in Dallas (I was REALLY tired at the time) and after realizing my memory lapse I wandered the entired terminal looking for it to no avail. It was found and returned via FedEx to me within a few days.Of course the bigger issue is data safety. It seems like making ANY effort to secure data would be a big improvement over the total lack of protection that seems to satisfy most business travelers. Any level of Encryption is better than nothing. Unless you're in the CIA and there is an agent following you in order to steal your sensitive government data, the likelihood that an average theif would spend time trying to decrypt your data is pretty minimal.
I totally agree, but I use my business address and phone rather than my home address. It works just as well and you don't reveal your personal data.
I also make sure to use the password encryption capabilities on spreadsheets with confidential or personal data, and the same for Word docs.
As a backup, I use the Yahoo Briefcase storage server for key docs, so even if I lose laptop and memory stick I can still go online and retrieve the docs. (Briefcase online storage came with my home computer set up.) The only downside with Yahoo Briefcase is it limits docs to 5 MB each, so for bigger docs I have to partition them.