A new feature has been brought to Samsung TVs as Samsung Claims they can Remotely Disable Stolen TVs. Clearly, this is an entirely new feature and it got publicized after their TVs were stolen from South African Warehouse. Before now, not many people knew of this feature but as fate would have it, they have confirmed that their TVs can be remotely disabled if the company finds out that the units have been stolen.
Apparently, Samsung has given this new TV a name. It is currently being called “Television Block Function”. Samsung claims this feature was recently activated in South Africa after their TVs were taken from a company warehouse during a wave of unrest and protests last month (July).
Samsung Claims they can Remotely Disable Stolen TVs
This technology is already pre-loaded on all Samsung TV products says Samsung. This procedure ensures that all Samsung TVs can only be used by the rightful owners. According to them, the rightful owners are supposed to have valid proof of purchase.
The company mentioned that if you are a customer in SA and one of the TV you bought got blocked by accident, they can have it unblocked and the customer just needs to send proof of purchase to them. However, it’s uncertain if this feature is currently set to combat large-scale thefts or if it will ever be used to help individual customers.
How Does Samsung TV Block Function Work?
According to an article on The Verge, for this TV block function to work, Samsung has to know the serial code of the stolen unit. When the TV connects to the internet, it checks its serial code against a list of Samsung’s servers and disables all TV functionality if it finds a match.
Conclusion
Presumably, blocking the stolen Samsung TVs in South Africa was relatively easy. This is because the TVs were taken from Samsung’s very own warehouse and this is where the company would be tracking its inventory.
It’s very possible that a Samsung customer whose TV is stolen can report the serial code to the company so they will have it remotely disabled. However, it isn’t clear yet if this is on Samsung’s radar.
