1y ago

Philips Hue will soon require an account to use its app — here’s what that means

www.theverge.com Philips Hue will soon require an account to use its app — here’s what that means

Philips Hue is making user accounts mandatory if you want to use its app. But there are alternatives.

According to its current privacy policy, with an account, Hue gets access to the configuration of your system to provide the right software updates to the devices. It can only use your data for marketing or share it with third parties if you provide additional consent.

However, in a change to the current policy, Yianni says Hue will not collect usage information from users without additional optional consent. “So, we do not require users share anything about how they use our products,” he says.

“Previously creating an account was consent for usage data processing that we are in the process of decoupling and will be decoupled before accounts become essential — that makes sure it’s possible to create an account without sharing usage data,” says Yianni. However, if you choose to use the cloud services for things like out-of-home connectivity, you will need an account, and Hue will process your data, he says.

If this change to the privacy policy does happen, Home Assistant’s Schoutsen agrees that it would make the requirement for an account more palatable. “But it all depends on the exact changes,” he says.

39 comments

With the current system, anyone with physical access to your Hue bridge can take it over just by pressing the button.
If a bad actor has access to your home, I doubt light bulbs will be your main concern...
- Notably they would also have access to normal physical light switches. Oh no, someone in the room could turn my lights on or off, the horror.
- Read: Before YOU were able to verify who was using the device. But now WE want to know who is using the device.
- They're probably the only thing worth stealing in my home.
  
  huehuehue
- I wonder if a mark... Er customer, ever brought up this concern?
  I bet some marketing clown thought it up lol

I just blocked my bridge from accessing the internet. hopefully that will prevent any sneaky update from messing with my local access
- Good idea, I'd hate to see them bricking it for use with Home Assistant or anything like that.

Don't buy shit that's remote controlled by a corporation. If you can't use it offline you haven't bought it at all.
- the issue is that Hue devices can actually be used offline without issues. They are changing that retroactively for users.
  
  Better get them offline right away then, before they're updated.
  
  There is a lesson in this...
  
  You will still be able to use them completely offline after you complete the setup process, it's in the article. Regardless, I only have a couple devices, so it'll be pretty painless for me to rip em out.

Isn't the whole point of Phillip's Hue's devices + bridge supposed to be that it could all be operated locally?
- Traditional non-smart bulbs also work locally, and for a lot less money.
  
  Can't control colour temperature and brightness, and it's a pain in the ass getting traditional bulbs to automatically turn on with your morning alarm!
  That said I personally wouldn't buy proprietary smart lighting - all my lights are running the FOSS WLED firmware, controlled through self-hosted HomeAssistant and HyperHDR.
- That's why I went with them. Good thing I only have a few so far and can put a pause on buying more until this shakes out.

Here's what that means - demand a refund, start a class action suit, idk every corp is doing this rug pull at the same time hoping they can get in before the law catches up.
How does one start a class action suit?

Well shit. I liked my hue bulbs. They were the only 'smart' stuff I was willing to set up in my home. The reasoning they gave for this is so disgustingly disingenuous.
- The good news is, most hue bulbs can be controlled directly over zigbee now. I migrated mine a few days ago, and the trickiest part was persuading Hue to delete the bulbs so they could enter pairing mode.
  
  Ohh how can I do this?

I gave them a crap review in the Android app store because of it -- I have absolutely no need for my lights to be able to be controlled over the internet outside of my house, and I don't want the feature nor do I want my hue bulbs connected via any stupid cloud link so they COULD be managed over the internet outside of my house. Their response was "as we add new features, so too do we add new security features to protect the platform and that justifies us requiring you to have a login and make your devices controllable via the cloud". Uh huh.
I've set the Android app to never automatically update in the future and I'm really hopeful that I can avoid this garbage requirement by doing so, but I'm sure they've thought of it and I'm going to end up having to move to 3rd party apps to control them eventually.

god i hate this crap. what is the alternative to this intrusive shit from companies? is the diy home automation, and software? i know have hear of a few out there, also that its hard to setup.

Hue is also already tracking you a lot.

I can't turn on the lights, i forgot my password
- Hue lights also works from the light switch just like a normal bulb.
- Can't get into my house, I forgot the code
  These people are solving issues that don't need to be solved IMHO
  
  Kinda hard to control the brightness and colour temperature on traditional lightbulbs!
  
  Solving problems is hard, and of questionable profitability given the difficulty.
  Solving non-problems, or even better, non-problems that you yourself have turned into problems... That's where the money is.

39 comments