[German]User of a "smart" Philips Hue light will have to create an account from 2024 to be able to control the gadgets in question via app. Philips had recently introduced a new security system and also promised support for the Matter standard. But now the company is requiring users of its Hue lights to log in to a Hue account in the cloud to use the app.
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I ame across the issue a few ago via the following tweet from Prof. Denis Kipker, which The Verge picked up on in this article.
I guess whoever owns a Hue lamp from Philips probably already has a Hue account set up. Such an account can be used to connect the Hue lights to platforms like Amazon Alexa for voice control. But the fact is also that this Hue account has been optional so far. And not everyone likes to give their data to a manufacturer, which is why some people just went for Hue lights because no account is required.
Then on September 21, 2023, the Hue blog published the post Philips Hue soon only usable with account. There it says that Philips Hue has now confirmed (see screenshot above) that the use of the system will soon only be possible with an account. This is what it says on the Hue website:
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Philips Hue accounts
In order to get the most out of your smart lighting system and keep it even more secure, signing in to a Philips Hue account will become an essential part of controlling your lights — and here's what you can do with one.
The Hue blog mentions that for some users a corresponding notice has already appeared on the home page of the Hue app. The following screenshot from Mastodon shows the message.
On Twitter, the user named Mysk then asked and there was a confirmation from Philips Hue along the lines of: Hello Mysk, thanks for reaching out. Believe us, this change can only benefit the users, when it comes to security. Soon it will indeed be mandatory to have a Hue account in order to control the lights.-factor authentication to make your data even more secure. […] By implementing this you can invite new users to your account, remove user permissions when they're no longer needed, or add two-factor authentication to keep your data even more secure.
In reply tweets, users are quite pissed off about this response or change on the part of Philips Hue. On Mastodon, the discussion then really took off, people are not amused to need a Hue account.
The Verge writes, with reference to the privacy policy, that Hue gets access to the configuration of the system in order to provide the right software updates for the devices. Hue can then use user data for marketing purposes or share it with third parties only if they give their additional consent.
But I think anyone with a bit of sense will be very pissed off to have to marry their Hue lights to the cloud. If the cloud dies, the Hue lights are just electronic waste. The Verge still describes in the article the possibility of bypassing the Hue account constraint. To do so, the bridge (and its associated accessories) must be integrated directly into a platform like Apple Home. However, that won't be the case for much longer, because Hue plans to make a Hue account mandatory for the API in the foreseeable future as well.
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