Reading thru the Leeo thread I have to say with more of the products having a cloud component this issue is only going to become more prevalent. How do we protect ourselves from this?
<< tinfoil hat >>
Privacy issues aside that's another reason I have resisted things like IFTTT and other "free" type services. Even with the paid ones there is no guarantee they will be around long term or that they wont do something that affects us in some way like raising prices, changing interfaces/functions etc.
I would also be wary of large companies like Google who has the propensity of shutting products and services down because they can't monetize them enough OR companies like Samsung who try and exert tighter and tighter control, changing things to suit their product line/vision and leaving users in the lurch.
<< / tinfoil hat >>
When considering implementing an HA system for your home you have to think of in terms of years not months and avoid jumping into the latest hot trend. This is one reason why HE is so appealing. As has been said even if the company behind HE goes away / changes direction our current systems should continue to function with little or no difficulty.
Also I'm not totally against everything cloud based - just that it should be put on the periphery of a system and not be considered an integral part. I have a special "controller" hub that is dedicated to global rules and cloud interactions. Everything else is dedicated to local devices and rules.
I came from SmartThings to get away from the cloud dependancy. The only things current cloud-based that I'm using are the iOS Hubitat app for notifications / dashboards and Amazon Echo for voice control. If/when I find a local solution to reliably replace the voice control of the Echos, I'll buy one for every room assuming they aren't ridiculously expensive.
Mine is bespoke forged only from the finest aluminium mined in a sustainable way with free trade!
Google is particularly annoying because they have no qualms about dropping services/products forcing change on their products clients (us). It seems like madness to include them for any long term planning.
Also the whole collect every bit of info on you by the big players is unnerving and we have likely yet seen/felt the full ramifications of that yet.
I think we will always be dependent on large companies. We depend on economies of scale for the devices we use. Hubitat couldn't afford to actually make the HE hub. If HE did go away, I doubt you would stay with the Hubitat hub. I have gone through X10, Wink, Wink plus Home Assistant, Vera, Vera plus Home Assistant, Home Assistant on its own and then to Hubitat. If Hubitat went away, I would want something that kept up with anything I might add in the future.
I am not that worried about Google either. Yes, they have dropped services I liked, but on the whole, they haven't shown me that they can't be trusted with my information. I somewhat feel the same with Amazon. I don't have the same feelings for smaller companies however, and don't blindly hand over my data. There needs to be a very compelling reason for me to signup for anything and I usually refuse.
Thanks for the link. I read through that thread before awhile back but didn't bookmark it. Although I have a few spare PCs around the house, I can't see me putting one running full time in each room at this point unless I invest in new hardware. Most of Windows boxes I have are a few years old and aren't very power efficient. Some of the servers could be used as heaters.
What I'm hoping to eventually find is a voice package for the Raspberry Pi4 and something like this:
I have been running this for a few months now and been great, I been using old Dell PC 7010 I have set up for gaming emulation and I never know it is running. It works as it always did as far as the pc functions/gaming
