Brads Electronic Projects Forum

Intel's Sandy Bridge processors have a remote kill switch

http://www.techspot.com/news/41643-inte ... witch.html

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.
— Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s

That's a great idea and would be perfect for laptops because normally the CPU is soldered onto the main board. So if you disabled it, then they couldn't sell it.

As for protecting your data, they need to incorporate something into harddrives. I'm just not sure what!