Product and or Service Requirements

[Mustang65]

First off, I am not one that believes in government intervention, but there are times contrary to popular (and my) beliefs, they can be useful.

Technology changes faster than ever before and causes a lot of products to become obsolete in a very short time, are dropped from the companies product lines, go south or just decide to drop IOT produces or services. Once they are dropped, and no longer can access the product on their server, we lose connectivity with the IOT product. The ones that concern me are the products that utilize their website to interface their products to your computers. I have narrowed mine down to one product and that happens to be my ecobee 4 thermostat. The thermostat communicates with ecobee via the internet and I get my information from ecobee over the internet. There is no direct communication between me and the thermostat. There are plenty of IOT products that are designed this way.

Granted there are individuals (was going to say GUYS, but that is not politically correct now days) that have successfully hacked the devices and made them accessible to the IOT community (Sonoff). The sad part is that most of the products have not been hacked or maybe cannot be hacked (in my lifetime). So, there should be and I hate to even present this thought, some form of Federal governmental intervention, where the IOT product(s), that fall under this category of only operating from their sight on the internet, be required to have a  software program that would work on an Raspberry Pi or other platform. That software program (from the IOT mfr) that would allow the IOT device to communicate with and we would have access to the device through that program. The program would have to be in place (but not to the public) in the design stages, so if they go south or stop support they would distribute the software.

Example, since my ecobee communicates with only ecobee on line, should they go under (only as an example), they would have to make software available, maybe running on a Raspberry Pi that the thermostat would start communicating with, making the thermostat information available to me and the ecobee thermostat (weather....).

Just my thoughts

[lilyoyo1]

2 hours ago, Mustang65 said:

First off, I am not one that believes in government intervention, but there are times contrary to popular (and my) beliefs, they can be useful.

Technology changes faster than ever before and causes a lot of products to become obsolete in a very short time, are dropped from the companies product lines, go south or just decide to drop IOT produces or services. Once they are dropped, and no longer can access the product on their server, we lose connectivity with the IOT product. The ones that concern me are the products that utilize their website to interface their products to your computers. I have narrowed mine down to one product and that happens to be my ecobee 4 thermostat. The thermostat communicates with ecobee via the internet and I get my information from ecobee over the internet. There is no direct communication between me and the thermostat. There are plenty of IOT products that are designed this way.

Granted there are individuals (was going to say GUYS, but that is not politically correct now days) that have successfully hacked the devices and made them accessible to the IOT community (Sonoff). The sad part is that most of the products have not been hacked or maybe cannot be hacked (in my lifetime). So, there should be and I hate to even present this thought, some form of Federal governmental intervention, where the IOT product(s), that fall under this category of only operating from their sight on the internet, be required to have a  software program that would work on an Raspberry Pi or other platform. That software program (from the IOT mfr) that would allow the IOT device to communicate with and we would have access to the device through that program. The program would have to be in place (but not to the public) in the design stages, so if they go south or stop support they would distribute the software.

Example, since my ecobee communicates with only ecobee on line, should they go under (only as an example), they would have to make software available, maybe running on a Raspberry Pi that the thermostat would start communicating with, making the thermostat information available to me and the ecobee thermostat (weather....).

Just my thoughts

Anytime the government gets involved something will inevitably go bad. Intervention is the worse thing that could possibly happen.

No one forces anyone to use these devices. We choose to. While there will come a time support ends (ecobee as an example), the base system is still usable. If we as consumers don't like that then we can force change by voting with our wallets. There are thermostats out there that have local APIs. Buy those. By buyimg cloud based systems we acknowledge in someway that we are on with their model

[Teken]

1 minute ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Anytime the government gets involved something will inevitably go bad. Intervention is the worse thing that could possibly happen.

No one forces anyone to use these devices. We choose to. While there will come a time support ends (ecobee as an example), the base system is still usable. If we as consumers don't like that then we can force change by voting with our wallets. There are thermostats out there that have local APIs. Buy those. By buyimg cloud based systems we acknowledge in someway that we are on with their model

Agreed, nothing is more powerful than the consumer voting with their wallet. Remember no company operates solely to offer free stuff they do so for gain and profit. The companies do not have power that power lies in the consumers hands.

If X companies see consumer demand is waning they will adapt, iterate, and change their model. But, this won't happen until the public is educated and understands cloud first vs local first is simply a time bomb waiting to happen. As many of the forum members know I am a huge fan of the Sci-Fi show Battle Star Galactica (BSG). The overall premise of the show was that a great society was taken down easily because everything they have is interconnected to one another.

In 2020 we as society have become more intertwined with our things . . .

This, will be mans down fall in the coming years as we fail to grasp the consequences of being able to do a thing vs should we!

B.S.G. So say we all . . .