Someone with more legal knowledge can chime in, but I doubt that what Google is doing violates any laws. The question is if it violates an explicit or implied contract with customers, and to determine that, someone would have to file a lawsuit. Which would be time-consuming and expensive and even if successful, would mostly make money for the lawyers.
Tech goes obsolete for a variety of reasons, and in my experience, it’s mostly not worth losing sleep about.
As I understand the legal system, you generally can’t sue over damages that have not yet occurred, no matter how likely they are to occur in the future. You can only sue after the fact, when the damages become real.
Which makes perfect sense. Until Google actually does brick everybody’s devices, there is no damage. There’s nothing stopping them from changing their decision at the last moment or changing the date, or taking other actions to mitigate potential damage.
So we probably won’t see any suits (assuming there will be any at all) until after Google turns off the service and bricks customer devices. Until then, the courts will say you don’t have standing to sue because you haven’t (yet?) incurred any damages.
Of course, law firms may be threatening suits and going to the press with such threats at any time. But (if comments in this thread mean anything) anyone doing this has not yet gone public.
I appreciate the bit of legal education, which certainly makes sense. However, I doubt that Google will be swayed by Quixotic homeowners (nor will plaintiffs attorneys think the challenge worthy of their time).
So, to keep the discussion on point, I’ll ask a different question: does any TidBits reader of this thread know of a possible assembly of DIY devices that homeowners could use to create a home security system?
I thought that perhaps Philips Hue’s new motion and portal sensors could do that, but it turns out all they can do is turn lights on and off. I have NO idea whether the multi-platform “Matter” ecosystem could be leveraged to accomplish that goal. I guess I should wander around discussions of this year’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show as one place to look.
I second Home Assistant, especially since you mentioned DIY. Not sure how much DIY the nest system was vs just configurable to do what you wanted, the HA system is very very DIY. I haven’t started using it, but I have been reading more and more, and will probably set it up to integrate it with my current HomeKit/HomeBridge setup to enable additional functionality. But it’s def in the “nice to have” not required project category.
Thanks for that, Angus.
I visited Home Assistant’s website. Must admit it frightened me. I’ve been a Mac user since 1984, and I’ve written at most 5 AppleScripts in those almost 40 years. I’ve done probably a similar number of mail routing routines, but that’s about it.
AND, having said that, I’m concerned that the whole thing is less than stellar even in the website’s user interface (links that don’t display that they’re links, links that don’t completely load the pages to which they link, etc. Apparently setting up a system based on Home Assist requires LOTS of scripting. The demo’s UI mentions solely cameras, doorbells, and thermostats as far as Nest or Google Nest devices are concerned (and I did find some posts about Nest Protect Smoke Detectors, but they all seemed to be from people who couldn’t bond them to their Home Assistant interface) and unless I’m TOTALLY unaware of mainstream home security ecosystem devices, until Google decided to throw us all in the trash last year in its quest for a different (and I assume much larger) revenue stream from ADT, the Nest Detects were actually the nicest portal/motion detection sensors one could buy.
I did sign up for a community forums account, but I think that it would be WAY too much for a guy who only needs to monitor fewer than a dozen doors and windows and adjust the thermostat without getting off the couch or go from “eco” mode to “warm it up” when his plane lands from a vacation trip. I don’t need to know how often a cat visited the litter box, or minute by minute total energy consumption by my home. A majority of the comments on the iOS App store are either VERY positive or VERY negative.
I can point and click pretty well, but as far as writing code is concerned, at age 76 I’ll stick remaining able to shift 24 gears on my road bike and indoor trainer bicycle.
In my system, I have (I guess old) Hue motion sensor (not part of any portal except its hub), Hue lights, SimpliSafe door sensors (can be used on windows too ), and motion sensors, Meross switches and outlets, Nanoleaf light strips, Logitech circle view cameras, and probably something else. I use Homebridge to make everything visible to HomeKit when no native exposure is available. I do most of my automation in HomeKit. When I want to open an SimpliSafe armed contact, I either have to temp disable the security or I use a spare magnet to keep the contact “closed”.
I get alerts when people move in watched areas, doors are opened, all of which can turn lights on and off. I had to do a bit of shortcut scripting to plus up a couple of automations like when I want to get my computer into video studio mode.
Yea, I thought that might be the situation for you. I saw the “D-I-Y” in your first post but wasn’t sure you really wanted to DIY it like Home Assistant. It’s more the hacker/no cloud control community. They are clearly starting to appeal to those wanting more turn key with their green and yellow “servers” that are ready to go. Its power comes from the ability to do anything you want, as long as you are willing to put the effort in to make it do anything you want.
I’m almost clueless about “Matter” and whether it truly WILL make piecing together hardware from different companies relatively seamless. As I’ve said several times in this thread, what I’ll miss most about the Nest ecosystem is the VERY thoughtful design of the Nest Detects. I guess I need to take a serious look at other options, but the notion that to temporarily disable the alarm on a sliding door so that my dog can use the back yard as her commode I’ll need to have a few “spare magnets” in my pocket makes me wonder whether there ARE portal monitors available as sophisticated as the Nest Detects are—or I should say, “were.”
This is one of the issues slowly being folded into Right To Repair legislation and activism: If a manufacturer ceases production and support for a device/servcie can the owners and community pick up the ball and run with it?
With out derailing the thread, here is a rough overview of some elements: