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Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

defcon.social

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Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#111

Post by vidarh »

littlestymaar wrote: post #29
thetoon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do have real use-case, though : lights on a cable system, but long enough to light different areas (dining table AND couch, for instance). It's quite convenient to be able to control each area separately, instead of needing to turn them all on or all off.

You probably don't need to be able to control them over the internet though…

Hue lights are zigbee. There are zigbee USB controllers, and they're supported by Home Assistant etc., so if you want you can easily enough set it up totally isolated and firewalled off. You just won't be able to use the official app and bridge.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#114

Post by rtomanek »

peterbraden wrote: post #105

Does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement bridge that works with home assistant? It seems I’ll be throwing out the hue bridge and never buying a phillips product again.

Hardware: https://phoscon.de/en/conbee2/

Software (you may or may not need it for HA): https://github.com/dresden-elektronik/deconz-rest-plugin

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#115

Post by yomlica8 »

vidarh wrote: post #23
baal80spam wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on - don't you want for all your bulbs to be turned on already _before_ you get back home? It's a gamechanger!

What is a game changer is to be able to just turn off everything in the house when I leave, and know the iron will be off, along with all the lights. It's not critically important, but the many individually small conveniences add up.

Seems like cheap auto off timers and simple motion detector lights would solve all those problems with 1970s technology and no network connections at all.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#116

Post by jstarfish »

mirekrusin wrote: post #41
jorvi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a somewhat strangely named German brand that sells private IoT door / security cams. Forgot the name, sadly. They’re quite expensive though. My guess is they might sell private lightbulbs. For home audio, Sonos is great. Their voice assistant is completely locally processed.

Are you joking about Sonos? They force you to have account with them to use speakers and you have to enable location sharing on your app to connect (!!). They know more about people than their parents do.

> Are you joking about Sonos? They force you to have account with them to use speakers and you have to enable location sharing on your app to connect

Tangential PSA: Red Sea (aquatics) does/did this too. I can't control the lights on my fucking aquarium without all four of them being connected to the internet over wifi and managed through an account registered with an app with location sharing enabled. Only the iOS app worked; the Android version was completely broken.

The app lets you group lights and model the lighting curves however you want but there's no reason this couldn't have been done over Zigbee. I assume my LAN is now part of some Mossad botnet.

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#117

Post by stronglikedan »

oxfordmale wrote: post #108

SeeYouLaterAlligator12345678@gmail.com coming up. The more companies force this the less valuable data they get out of it. Sure you can email me, I am just opening the account once a month to keep it active.

Soon they'll require monthly 2FA to use their products. Ya know, for your protection!

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#118

Post by dieselgate »

oxfordmale wrote: post #108

SeeYouLaterAlligator12345678@gmail.com coming up. The more companies force this the less valuable data they get out of it. Sure you can email me, I am just opening the account once a month to keep it active.

opening an account once/month is still quite a lot really. without payment automation i can barely keep up with bills

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#119

Post by yebyen »

orev wrote: post #103
contravariant wrote: post #30

Is there any official announcement of this? I'd like to know some more details on what they plan to do with the existing API. All I can find is references to something posted on twitter, which I refuse to accept as official communication.

If you install the mobile Hue app, it’s right on the main screen.

So if I'm not using the Hue app, am I affected? That's what isn't particularly clear from the post or the comments here. If you're already using their app, is it so onerous to get an account? (I might or might not get an account, the Hue kit is already sitting on my shelf collecting dust, but I was thinking of using Urbit or some other open source project to resurrect it soon... so does this affect us?)

Re: Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account

#120

Post by grumblez »

krisoft wrote: post #9

I have noticed the announcement of the change too. This materially changes the product for me. I was a happy user so far, and was thinking about buying more bulbs in fact, but not anymore. Is there a way to force the company to return the money I have paid for my bulbs and hub so far? Even if it is arduous and cost me more money than I'm able to gain back I would be inclined to do it to signal my displeasure with thi…

Fortunately all of their lights work over a standard Zigbee connection. No need for a Hue Hub or App at all. I was already transitioning my lights from using the Hue Hub/App to directly connecting via Zigbee/HomeAssistant before this was announced.
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