Today’s story is about Philips Hue by Signify. They will soon start forcing accounts on all users and upload user data to their cloud. For now, Signify says you’ll still be able to control your Hue lights locally as you’re currently used to, but we don’t know if this may change in the future. The privacy policy allows them to store the data and share it with partners.
[…]
When you open the Philips Hue app you will now be prompted with a new message: Starting soon, you’ll need to be signed in.
[…]
So today, you can choose to not share your information with Signify by not creating an account. But this choice will soon be taken away and all users need to share their data with Philips Hue.
Confirming the news
I didn’t want to cry wolf, so I decided to verify the above statement with Signify. They sadly confirmed:
Twitter conversation with Philips Hue (source: Twitter)
The policy they are referring to is their privacy policy (April 2023 edition, download version).
[…]
When asked what drove this change, the answer is the usual: security. Well Signify, you know what keeps user data even more secure? Not uploading it all to your cloud.
[…]
As a user, we encourage you to reach out to Signify support and voice your concern.
NOTE: Their support form doesn’t work. You can visit their Facebook page though
Dear Signify, please reconsider your decision and do not move forward with it. You’ve reversed bad decisions before. People care about privacy and forcing accounts will hurt the brand in the long term. The pain caused by this is not worth the gain.
Source: Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud
No, Philips / Signify – I have used these devices for years without having to have an account or be connected to the internet. It’s one of the reasons I bought into Hue. Making us give up data to use something we bought after we bought it is a dangerous decision considering the private and exploitable nature of the data, as well as greedy and rude.
Robin Edgar
Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft