News today that local authorities have managed to lose sensitive data on individuals over 1,000 times in the past three years is serious stuff, and underlines how much information we place in the hands of civil servants tasked with running the country.

The data, uncovered by privacy advocates Big Brother Watch, revealed that most of the incidents councils fessed up to involved the loss of devices such as laptops, mobile phones and USBs, which is not a huge surprise.

However, there were one or two bizarre incidents that caught Sneak's eye and show that for all the legislation and technical measures you can put in place to try and stop data going missing, you can't legislate for every eventuality.

These incidents include a staff member in Kent leaving a diary on top of his car before driving off, causing the diary to go missing, while the same error befell an employee in Gloucestershire who left conference case notes on the roof of his car.

An even better Gloucestershire incident, though, was the case of a van delivery door swinging open causing several bags of files to go missing, although all but one were recovered in the end. The council's action? "Van door fixed".

Sneak's favourite, however, was the report from an authority in Aberdeenshire that it lost sensitive data when a paper file was "blown away in the wind". This led to a verbal warning for the staff member involved and a "review of handling paper outside".

Basically, if it's windy, don't let go of paper, is the thing to remember. It certainly gives a new meaning to the term cloud computing anyway.

HP has announced a spiffing new portable called the Folio 13, which joins the ranks of the ultrabooks hoping to attract customers away from the magnetic pull of the iPad and other tablets.

But hang on, haven't we heard that name before?

Those with long memories (like Sneak) will recall that Palm (now an HP subsidiary) announced a product called the Foleo way back in 2007.

OK, the spelling might be different, but the Foleo was also an ultra-portable clam-shell computer, though Palm at the time envisioned it more as a companion device to one of its Treo smartphones than a system in its own right.

At the time, Palm came under much derision for the notion, and the Foleo was canned a few months later without ever coming to market.

Looking at today's netbooks and tablets, however, Sneak can't help but feel that it was maybe just ahead of its time.

Let's hope that HP's latest Folio doesn't suffer the same fate as its namesake.

The beauty with location-based devices - tablets, smartphones, laptops - is that if they get stolen there's usually a way to find out where they are and who nabbed them.

So, when one man had his MacBook stolen in Oakland, California he knew that his Hidden app would be just the tool to track down the bandit and bring him to justice. And he set up a blog to track the status of the case for all the internet to enjoy.

The app works by broadcasting its location, and taking pictures and screen grabs on the sly of what the laptop is being made to do against its will, helping to give the legitimate owner the chance for retribution.

So, our hero in this story saw the thief delete his account, log in to his Facebook page, take a quick nap, go for a drive and lie in bed ... although what he was doing in bed was thankfully not revealed to the wider internet.

Needless to say, the thief was oblivious and was soon picked up by the police, no doubt wondering how his perfect crime was solved. Well, this is technology, son. If you're going to nick it, you gotta know how to work it.

No doubt the policeman who collared the thief casually tossed off a well aimed quip, perhaps "MacBook him, Danno".

This is not the first time Sneak has been impressed by this sort of technology. Former England rugby captain Will Carling was involved in a dramatic game of cat and mouse over a stolen iPad, which also resulted in a happy ending.