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Steam Deck user stung by second-hand market after Valve refuses help
(www.pcgamesn.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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They could probably blacklist it from getting SteamOS updates through their servers, but actually bricking it would involve taking away from the "it's just a PC" nature of the device.
TIL...
I just assumed laptops would get bricked if reported stolen like a phone or console, but apparently they don't?
This actually makes a Steam Deck a huge target for theft
I don't know about you, but I'm really happy that Valve and PC manufacturers can't just decide to lock me out whenever they want. After I buy it, it's mine, not theirs, and I should be the one to decide whether to install a mechanism to brick it if it gets stolen.
People still steal phones despite knowing that they'll get bricked, they're still worth something for parts.
With android the user can go to their Google account and remotely brick the phone themselves. But it's you, the owner, doing the change, and I agree with it.
On that grounds, Im sure you could write or find a program to give you the ability to remotely brick your steam deck when it next connects to the internet
Exactly. There are plenty of rootkits out there that can destroy the BIOS or something, and writing a way to run that remotely that would be pretty easy (just set up a cron job to check an online service periodically to see if it should brick itself).
However, I'd rather the thieves be able to use something they stole from me instead of just creating more ewaste. So I'm against the idea of remotely bricking things, especially for something like a gaming device where there is no personal information. For something like a phone, I just care that my personal data is safe, so I prefer a remote wipe to a remote brick.
I instead protect my stuff with physical measures instead of technical.
Some corporate computers have a way to do this via the bios but it must be preconfigured and can easily be turned off if it hasn't been.
The onboard storage is a removable NVMe or eMMC memory module, it could be blanked or replaced.
Amazing how quick people have gotten used to not owning their electronics.