Samsung: It can remotely block stolen TVs

Samsung has revealed that its TVs can be blocked remotely if the company finds out that they have been stolen. This feature is called the “TV Blocking Function,” and Samsung says it was recently activated in South Africa after a large number of TVs were taken from the company’s warehouse last month, during a wave of protests and unrest.

The South Korean giant states that the technology is “already installed on all Samsung TV products” and “ensures that the TVs can only be used by legal owners with proof of purchase.” However, it is not clear from Samsung’s description whether this feature is only intended to combat large-scale theft or will ever be used to help individual consumers.

For the lock function to work, Samsung must know the serial code of the stolen TV. When the device connects to the Internet, it checks its serial code listed on Samsung’s servers and disables all TV functions if it finds a match.

It is possible that the average customer whose TV was stolen could report his serial code to the company in order to remotely disable it, but it is not clear whether Samsung offers or plans to offer such a service, writes The Verge.