The digital content market has a big problem with piracy and most resorts for DRM technology to fight it. Theft, however, has become a problem for thousands of years, and various tools, systems and laws have been put in place to block, sometimes ineffective. At present, retailers have used a technology-based solution to prevent theft or capture thieves, and the Home Depot applies a rather new idea to prevent the prayers by requiring electrical devices enabled in the register before it can be used.
It sounds almost like a DRM for electrical tools, unless it’s set to stop stolen products from working in the first place. Electrical appliances are almost easy to sneak out of large shops such as Home Depot, especially when the retail crime group is organized involved. To prevent theft, home depot electrical tools will not function unless you activate it, which can only be done on the register after paying the item.
According to Business Insider (which also provides the image above), this system uses Bluetooth technology to activate the power tool after being paid. Without activation, the product is basically useless except as a source of spare parts. Home Depot VP Asset Protection Scott Glenn Apparently not too worried about the scenario because criminals will only turn to something easier and more profitable.
The system, however, can also produce an increase in online fraud. Just like e-commerce changing the game for “professional crying” by allowing them to hide among legitimate online retailers, it can also help them make fast money from stolen power tools that cannot be used. People who buy from such retailers may not realize that they buy products that they cannot even use because it is not activated first.
Home Depot plans to launch this new theft prevention technology at 1,988 stores in the US. Organized retail crimes reported retailers’ fees nearly $ 720,000 per $ 1 billion in sales based on the 2020 survey, which might not be surprising considering what happened last year. Maybe it takes time before the new system can be considered effective, at least after the word comes out on the road that the electrical device depot is damaged unless you pay it.
