Did you know that Samsung can brick TVs remotely if they’re stolen?

When you buy a piece of technology, especially technology that can be connected to the internet, it’s important to remember that the companies that make the tech have some control over it. This was shown off perfectly after Samsung bricked stolen TVs recently.

After a distribution center in South Africa was robbed, which included the theft of Samsung TVs, it was revealed that the TVs were useless because Samsung managed to remotely disable them.

The feature is called TV Block and it basically works like this – when a Samsung product is stolen, the serial number is logged with the company. Once that product connects to the internet, Samsung servers automatically identify the product and disable it.

In a release from Samsung, Mike Van Lier, Director of Consumer Electronics at Samsung South Africa, notes:

“In keeping with our values to leverage the power of technology to resolve societal challenges, we will continuously develop and expand strategic products in our consumer electronics division with defence-grade security, purpose-built, with innovative and intuitive business tools designed for a new world.”

Like many things when it comes to technology, this is a great thing on the surface, but it’s also a perfect example of connected technology having caveats that some users may not fully understand.

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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.