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Nest Reminds Customers That Ownership Isn't What It Used To Be (eff.org)
Alphabet-owned Nest recently announced that it will be turning off Revolv Hub next month. An anonymous reader shares an article on EFF, a privacy rights group: Nest Labs, a home automation company acquired by Google in 2014, will disable some of its customers' home automation control devices in May. This move is causing quite a stir among people who purchased the $300 Revolv Hub devices -- customers who reasonably expected that the promised "lifetime" of updates would enable the hardware they paid for to actually work, only to discover the manufacturer can turn their device into a useless brick when it so chooses. This is far from the first time that customers' software and electronics have been downgraded by manufacturers. Updates can disable features the customer paid for that have fallen out of favor with the vendor, as when Google disabled privacy settings on Android or Sony took away the ability to run GNU/Linux on a Playstation 3. Manufacturers can even render a device unusable until the customer "agrees" to new terms of use, as Nintendo did with the Wii U. Other software and devices, including some video games, are designed so they simply stop working when they can no longer dial home to a server run by the vendor.
Look, we were already over this earlier this week, with the story that lied about them bricking the hubs. There's nothing to stop anyone from reverse-engineering the protocol and getting the devices to work as intended again - nothing but money. This is what you get for trusting the cloud.
You wanted an app that could work from your phone from anywhere else in the world? Either run your own server, pay someone else to, or do without the remote functionality.
Yet another IoT fail.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Welcome to the future of the Internet of Everything!
A good reminder as to why we americans consider canada our escape plan.
I hate to say it, but the general population doesn't really care. If they did, they wouldn't buy/use this stuff and the companies would go out of business. It's not a situation where people aren't informed, they just don't care.
Because limiting control to vendor-only is part of the "smart" in "smart home". If the owner (or "inhabitant") has control, then its automatically dumb and anti-progress. Your homes become the colonization ground for the big tech companies. And you even pay for it, willingly. What a great accomplishment of the marketing department.
If a majority of the people don't like it, the companies will find ways to lure them to do that deal. But they always will do products as restricted as possible, that still sell, because with that they can make most money. That's the new business model of the digital age. It will come to other areas too.
In the end we will have re-introduced serfdom, you don't own anything anymore, but the companies control every tiny part of your life. The owners of the companies will be the new upper class.
I wonder if the high level of technological obsolescence (whether planned or just practical) makes the notion of "lifetime support" kind of wink-and-a-nod sort of thing where most people think that lifetime only matters for the next three years and that nobody really expects support for the next 10 years.
If technology lasted as long as my washer-dryer, I might take lifetime more seriously.
(Yes, you in the back taking notes on a Palm Pilot, you are an outlier.)
Technically Alphabet was created to protect the Google brand from the evil they do.
I have friends who tell me "if x wins, I'm moving to Canada," and I just have to say, "No..no you're not. You're a moron."
Having living in Australia and New Zealand, I know what visa processes are like. It's involved. Unless you're in a skilled profession, in an in-demand field and are willing to sign your life away, you're not going to Canada. If you're under 30, you CAN easily get into AU/NZ (and if you just graduated or are enrolled in classes, Ireland as well), thanks to Holiday Work Visas. They're only good for a year, and you're not going to get sponsored for longer unless you're skilled (or you get someone to fall for you and get a partner visa).
Seriously, I've never had a light switch or door key get bricked by the manufacturer. The more I go through life the more I want less electronics in places where the value is dubious. My time is worth a lot, and having to unearth documentation, or deal with software revisions is a real pain. I want the Easy Button for all the day to day stuff I don't want to think about.
There will always that small subset (over represented here) that get joy and fulfillment fiddling with things for the sake of fiddling with things. In some parts of my life I am the same. Home automation is not one of them. Having the source code to compile my own distro for home automation is not desired, I want it so simple and bullet proof that I never have to think about it after installation, or I don't want it (no matter what "it" is).
My fridge should never phone home, get viruses, get bricked, lose/gain features, spy on me, or have a touch panel. It should make cold using the smallest amount of energy for as many years as possible, full stop.
he Internet of Things falls into a few categories:
1) Devices that are to be used against you.
Example: The "Smart Meters", which form a 'mesh' network, and can be turned off remotely to 'save power', etc. Water meters have been made doing the same thing, "to save water". Expect them to first be 'voluntary', and then 'mandatory'. Usage patterns will then be flagged, for 'suspicious' behavior.
2) Devices that function like the extension of the supermarket loyalty card.
Example: The "Smart refrigerator" which keeps track of your diet, what's inside, and what your ordering from the supermarket. All helpfully passed onto 3rd party marketeers. You are the product being sold.
3) Devices that monitor you for 3rd parties.
Examples: Smart TVs & Consoles. The smart device watches you, while you watch it. I've read that some refuse to work if they are unplugged from the internet (I think one example was LG TV). I've also read that the manufacturers have worked on image recognition, so they can keep track of who comes & goes during which program segments, to help tailor the audience for advertisers.
Obviously, I'm a Luddite, and have none of these devices. But I also don't believe that my personal life is any business of an uninvited 3rd party, nor do I believe that when I purchase an appliance, it's the right of the manufacturer to maintain control of it.
Lifetime of the product. Not of you.
I've seen software companies abuse this interpretation in funny ways by simply renaming the software after so many years. That evidently shouldn't be the case. Does it use the same code base of the "previous" software? Then it is the same product and the "lifetime" clause should be respected. Entirely new code base? Then yes, it's a new product.
In the case of devices, the only common sensincal meaning of "lifetime" is until your unit break and cannot be repaired due to lack of parts or the company going bankrupt and no one else acquiring those assets. Reinterpreting it to mean the company deciding that product line has been discontinued is disingenuous, and even more so if the company itself adds to that intentionally bricking the unit.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
One reason I did not buy a Nest was because Google bought it. Google does not have a good track record of supporting or maintaining consumer products. With software, particularly when they are giving it away, this is no problem. But with hardware that costs money, this is. Just another data point in not trusting Google.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black