[PietdeVries]

I might have misinterpreted the article, but I imagine that if the NFC tag on the brush locks out, the handset is no longer able to write new data to it (no 'brush seconds' can be added to the counter). This suggests to me that the handset will not start blinking and reminding you that you need a new brush, but will be happy to brush to infinity. I cannot imagine that the handset will refuse to brush if it can't write to the brush...

[Voklen]

I have a third party brush head for my Philips Sonicare with none of the smart features and no electronics in the head (there's an air gap where they usually are) and it still works fine. This makes me wonder all the more why they put the effort in to secure the head.

[version_five]

Engineer gonna engineer. Someone probably just had the time and misplaced passion for security, and when they explained at the weekly standup that they'd added lockout after three attempts, everybody just nodded and moved on.

[lscdlscd]

Perhaps some compliance to a too-broad security policy. Like, across the board, all NFC enabled electronics with read/write capabilities must have a password mechanism.

They probably knew it was dumb but implementing it was easier than getting around all the organizational permissions to make an exception.

[mensetmanusman]

There's a good conspiracy here somewhere.