this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Technology
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Which is something they already can do, just push an update and they are done. And after they simply go out of the market: nobody will buy their phone anymore.
But this is something different, here we are talking about something that is not different than reposessing a car if you don't pay the loan you used to buy it.
I don't want my car manufacturer sending an update to disable my push to start either. My car is paid off it's mine, I should not have that on my car.
When has that happened?
I think to remember to have read something about the possibility for a car manufacturer to remotely disable the car if requested or defaulted, something like once you park the car and turn off the engine it will not start again so no security problem, but I cannot pinpoing when/where i read it or if it ever went beyond the stage of an idea.
If requested by who? That would actually be a fantastic security feature for owners to be able to do if their car is stolen.
IIRC by the seller, if you did not pay the montly check for your loan they were able to disable the car and then recollect it
Yep, it was a fantastic security feature for the owners but also a way to disable the car if you do not pay the loan.
In some way yes
That’s perfectly fair imo. If you aren’t making your payments you are violating your contract and they are well within their rights to disable the car.
Ok, but then it is perfectly fair also for a phone.
Yes, it is. That was my point in the first comment of this chain.
Here we are talking about things not completely paid off. If you use a loan to buy something (a car, a phone, a house, whatever) until you paid off all the loan the thing is not yours.
If you don't pay your car loan, they can reposses it, if you don't pay your phone loan they block it, if you don't pay your data plan they close it. I don't see anything strange here.
Every phone is going to get the code that does this - paid off or not.