I asked Philips why using Matter requires an account

1

I wanted to try Matter with the Philips Hue system, but it requires an account(!). So I wrote them, this is the answer I got:

"Es tut uns sehr leid zu hören, dass Sie mit der Einrichtung eines Kontos nicht zufrieden sind.
Es ist aufgrund der Tatsache, dass es Cybersecurity für alle unsere Kunden und für zukünftige Updates fügt. "

Translated:

“We are very sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with setting up an account.
It is due to the fact that it adds Cybersecurity for all our customers and for future updates.”

I could hardly believe their answer, so I wrote again. The followup answer was:

“Um in den Genuss unserer Produkte zu kommen, ohne dass jemand in der Lage ist, die Lichter zu verändern oder sie gegen Ihren Willen zu manipulieren, ist es aus Sicherheitsgründen notwendig, ein Konto zu erstellen.”

Translated:

“To enjoy our products without anyone being able to change the lights or manipulate them against your will, it is necessary to create an account for security reasons.”

i’m shocked by these answers. I can no longer recommend Hue anymore, even though I used to really like them.

2

Sounds really dumb.

Maybe their assumption is that you continue to use their app with its remote access capability (which does require an account)??

Don’t throw away your current setup though. Drop their bridge (and therefore their account) and control the lights directly over Matter or Zigbee (via ZHA / Z2M).

3

Philips Hue will not have matter built-in to the end devices.
Only the bridge will be matter compatible.