For over a decade Philips Hue offered lights that work without sharing your data to the cloud. This is changing soon and we need your help to make some noise to convince them to revert this decision.
@homeassistant Wow, I feel really old and out date. My lights are controlled by a little piece of plastic that sticks out of the wall. When I push it up the light goes on. When I push it down the light goes off. #OldSchool.
@homeassistant the only reason to use the hue app for me, was to reset it if my z2m died and I had to re sync all my zigbee devices… with 60 mqtt devices I guess I should take better backups! oh well, next time that happens I’ll just switch to generic zigbee bulbs or better sonoff mini controlled lights!
@homeassistant funny enough, their support form doesn’t load if you decline tracking cookies on their site so they’re really doubling down on the whole “if you like privacy you shouldn’t be a customer”.
They say you can contact them through email or phone instead but from what I can see they don’t list those anywhere.
@homeassistant I'm considering purchasing a Zigbee gateway and using open source stuff like Domoticz on my OpenWRT router, but there's another option, I'm curious if folks have tried this or if it will work : blocking all internet access to the Hue bridge, telemetry and updates now, just let it be available on LAN, then set clients apps to the apk of the latest version of the Hue app and never update.
The main issue is determining which version, and where to find it...
@homeassistant that’s why you don’t trust companies like Philips. This isn’t the first time they do something shady as this. This is also the reason why your IoT-Network should NOT have Internet access and no way of running „auto-updates“
They're not going to revert that decision. This is the whole reason they created that product line in the first place, and now that they've achieved sufficient market penetration, it's time to cash in.
Your only options are to either submit to surveillance or stop using smart-home products.
They are all surveillance devices. That is their entire purpose. Any other functions they may have are secondary.
@homeassistant I just bought into Hue, but will now be looking at alternatives.
Worse, it’s impossible to find an email address - even as a customer. The “support” option in the App dumps you out to their website, where it says, “This functionality is not available due to your cookie consent choice. (…) you can always reach out to us (…) via Email or Phone.”
But they don’t share an email address.
What a horrible approach to serving its paying customers. I hope they don’t get away with it. 😡👎
@homeassistant oh FUCK no. Most of our lights are Hue. I’ve trusted them because I worked for Philips Lighting briefly, and I’m my lifetime I’ve had only one die on me.
If they’re going to force an update that cripples my hub, I’m definitely blocking it at the router before that happens.
@kennergf@homeassistant I slowly moved from “this needs to be reliable so I’ll pay for the more expensive stuff (notably HomeKit)” to “only the stuff I build myself will just last forever as it was designed”. Tired of seeing these change in my back.
The thing is now I have more control with cheap AliExpress ESP32 based plugs (on Tasmota or ESPHOME) than with all these western companies talking about privacy / security.
@santiago@homeassistant funny enough, in 2015 I did a course in Arduino because I wanted to start making my own automation, because of the prohibited price at the time, now I could afford, but I want to make my own for privacy reasons.
@kennergf@homeassistant I played with Arduino code & hardware previously and it’s amusing but #ESPHome is really what made it so much easier. You only code when you really need to, the rest is just defining what you want to connect. When you just want a button, a LED , a sensor and a relay , no need to reinvent the wheel each time.
Another thing to note is that this is a hardware product that has had a complete change in functionality, so all of the customers that refuse to accept the new conditions, can take the bulbs and ask for their money back.
@homeassistant
Phillips Hue does not want people that are concerned about privacy. 🤔
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@homeassistant
Every room in my house has #Hue bulbs, lightstrips and other lights by #Signify. I've spent one to two grands on these bc. there was no account nor cloud needed. If they enforce this I'm out.
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