Inspired by a discussion elsewhere:
I've been on the Internet since 1987, started a career building the commercial Internet in 1995, and have spent the last 25 years writing books about how to build foundational Internet infrastructure. I've consulted for and worked with any number of dot-coms, and the one lesson I've gotten over and over again?
The Internet's business model is betrayal.
We have no smart lights. No voice assistants. No Alexa or Siri. No video doorbell. Our thermostat and appliances constantly complain about their lack of Internet. None of this stuff is safe.
The Internet tech I do use? A desktop PC. Email on my phone is for travel only: airplane tickets, hotel reservations, hockey and concert tix. Location on my phone? Nope, we use a dedicated non-networked GPS in the car. The microphones are off.
How can a light bulb betray me? I don't know. I do know that the vendors have put a LOT of thought into it, though, and I can't out-think all of them.
@mwl "How can a light bulb betray me?"
You are gonna hate this
Philips/Signify just added a new feature called MotionAware¹. It measures fluctuations in Zigbee signal strength between bulbs to act as a motion/presence sensor.
They are also pushing hard for non-local user accounts², which means constant web connectivity.
All the pieces are in place to monetize your family room occupancy habits to advertisers.
Dystopian-ass timeline.
@gnomon P blocked outbound traffic from our Hue hub at the network level last year and it is *constantly* trying to bleat packets out.
@cherizilla hisssssssssss
The whole reason I got any Hue bulbs in the first place was because it _would_ work in a local-only configuration. That's all I want from them.
+1 on the internal firewall rule. I just hate engaging in a running infosec firefight *with devices that we bought for convenience*.
@gnomon @cherizilla I just use generic ZigBee bulbs, with Home Assistant.
Just works, local only forever
