Ars Technica: OLPC’s XO Laptop Comes with Anti-Theft Kill-Switch in Select Countries

“While the One Laptop Per Child Project has yet to decide on
whether or not they will sell the $150 XO laptop to the public,
they already know their biggest customers: governments. Argentina,
Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay have all
committed to buying the laptops for their citizenry, but as it
turns out, some of these countries have worries that the laptops
could end up in the hands of people other than those whom they’re
intended for. As a result, OLPC has built a remote kill-switch into
XO laptops so they can be remotely deactivated in the event that
they are used without authorization.

“In a technical document published earlier this month, Ivan
Krstić writes that ‘The OLPC project has received very
strong requests from certain countries considering joining the
program to provide a powerful anti-theft service that would act as
a theft deterrent against most thieves…'”

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