this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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The Philips Hue ecosystem is collapsing into stupidity (rachelbythebay.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
86 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Their latest round of stupidity pops up a new EULA and forces you to take it or, again, you can't access your stuff. But that's just more unenforceable garbage, so who cares, right? Well, it's getting worse.

It seems they are planning on dropping an update which will force you to log in. Yep, no longer will your stuff Just Work across the local network. Now it will have yet another garbage "cloud" "integration" involved, and they certainly will find a way to make things suck even worse for you.

If you ever saw the South Park episode where they try to get the cable company to do something on their behalf and the cable company people just touch themselves inappropriately upon hearing the lamentations of their customers, well, I suspect that's what's going on here. The management of these places are fundamentally sadists, and they are going to auger all of these things into the ground to make their short-term money before flying the coop for the next big thing they can destroy.

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[–] [email protected] 138 points 11 months ago (4 children)

So let me get this straight. You buy Phillips Hue devices because they work offline. Then they change how the devices you bought function making them only work online forcing you to create an account and allow them to collect data.

This should not be legal. This is a breach of contract, they modified the contract after you already signed it (by buying the device). If they want to do this, they should offer full refunds to anyone that wants to exit the contract, or only apply the changed to new devices.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Phillips: " I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They are though

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I found the youngling, y'all!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

No issue here. If you don’t like the new terms, just decline and toss all your smart home appliances that you spent your hard earned money on right into the trash.

See, no problem!

/s

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

I'm sure there's a line somewhere in the ToS that you always read carefully from beginning to the end, saying that they merely rent you the devices infinitely, so they're actually not your property and they can do whatever they want with them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There is a bog standard line in nearly every ToS "We have the right to modify this terms of service without notification to the user" blah blah blah. It probably even holds up in court.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does it matter that these ToS aren't available until after you buy the product? I mean, these agreements are rarely posted right next to the product in-store or online. Right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You can own a doodad but it's a static, useless doodad until you agree to the ToS which allows you to use it.