Following the looting of televisions at its Cato Ridge distribution centre in KwaZulu-Natal in July, Samsung South Africa has activated a feature that will effectively brick televisions.
The Television Block function has been implemented this week and it gives Samsung the ability to remotely brick a TV.
We should clarify that if you purchased a TV legitimately this won’t affect you.
Television Block is able to detect if a TV has been unduly activated and Samsung can then can action.
“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. This technology can have a positive impact at this time, and will also be of use to both the industry and customers in the future,” explained director of consumer electronics at Samsung South Africa, Mike Van Lier.
What we find curious is that this function only bricks the TV and doesn’t actually track the TV although if Samsung could do that it would likely lead to a number of privacy concerns.
There are some limitations to the Television Block function. For instance, the system is only functional when a user connects to the internet. With that having been said, given how much connectivity is integrated into TVs these days, not connecting to the internet might be nearly impossible.
Unfortunately, it does seems as though customers can be blocked incorrectly. Should that happen you should send a copy of your proof of purchase and TV license to serv[dot]manager[at]samsung[dot]com.
“As an organisation we acknowledge the critical role in giving our customers and client the peace of mind. Working together, we can overcome the impact of the unprecedented disruption to business, as experienced by many of us recently. We will continue to review the situation and will make adjustments as necessary to ensure business continuity for all,” concludes Van Lier.
