Hi had a phonecall with Philips Support and they told me follow:
You need a account in future so you can control your lights from outside your home network.
This will also be required when you want connect Alexa for example. Because this connection is used the internet and not your local network.
They also said that the API will not change.
Sidenote: The support guy told me also that they get lots of emails of Home Assistant users with same question: will the API still running when this account is required.
Fingers cross that this information will be the correct one…
ahem this has always been there since the beginning of time
but this was totally optional, now they require the same account just to operate locally and this is stupid
As the features we develop grow, so does the need for more advanced security. To keep your accounts and products secure and ensure you get the most out of your system, you’ll need to create a Philips Hue account soon.
We want to reassure you that your system will still work without an internet connection. After creating an account, your data will not be sold to any third parties, and you will only receive marketing communications based on your device and account preferences.
Signify will probably not admit it, but in my opinion, the obligation to make an account is directly linked to the introduction of the security cameras. What is the usage of security cameras when you can not see what is happening if you are not at home?
By itself that is valid argumentation, but not for those including myself who are in the Hue ecosystem for the lights, with the benefit of controlling it only via local access without any account whatsoever.
If Signify decided to push this obligation through, I am considering to leave the hue ecosystem completely.
I’d appreciate any recommendations as to what I can do with my dozens of Hue bulbs, strips and lamps in case we cannot discourage Hue from following this path. Especially as I have Home Assistant and can possibly get a Zigbee-Thing.
By the way, I too just emailed them and let them know what I think about their new policy. And so should everyone else (here).
My reading of the sitatuation is that the problem is the Hue hub.
The bulbs/strips/lamps are Zigbee devices, so you would need to stop using the Hue hub, and bind the devices to a standard Zigbee coordinator. You can then use either Zigbee2MQTT or ZHA to connect and control them via Home Assistant. As long as a future firmware update for the bulbs does not break Zigbee compatibility, I am doubtful that there should be any issues with using a non-Hue Zigbee coordinator.
While theoretically possible, future firmware updates for the bulbs almost certainly won’t intentionally break ZigBee 3.0 compatibility. They would not want to lose the certification for their devices and the drawbacks far outweigh any possible benefits for Signify.
Isn’t it strange that humans typically “allow” (or expect) companies to lie but when fellow humans do this it’s not really appreciated?
Even Signify / Philips Hue is LYING directly into our faces by telling us our private data is safer in the WWW than in our homes it still was a fellow human writing these lines…
There is actually no need to share my camera streams with companies and other users like happened in the past with amazon, eufy or wyze cameras more than once
If YOU want acces to YOUR cameras just use some VPN like wireguard or tailscale to acces your private network - allowing the manufacture (and potentially the rest of the world) access to YOUR cameras is probably most interesting for people with some fetish.
Your privacy is critically important to us. At Nabu Casa, Inc., we have a few fundamental principles:
We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. (We can’t stand services that ask you for things like your gender or income level for no apparent reason.)
We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the ongoing operation of one of our services.
since in this topic people speak of moving all Hue devices to HA + ZHA only, that question is quite relevant.
given the 2 bottom bullets, one could argue HA has a policy rather comparable with what Hue is now implementing.
Users require an account to safely login, but other than that, the company assures the user security is priority nr 1.
No storing or sharing user data, unless …
Neither Signify nor HA ask for my gender or income level .
just saying
if this:
turns out to be the correct final implementation, all is well after all I suppose. We need the account to signup and register the devices for operation when away from home, but can cut the external internet connection when at home and still have full operational power.
Or cut it permanently and have HA do the job if you want.Only connect upon updates if must be.
Seems the correct way of handling things, considering most Hue users wont have HA to be the man I the middle, and they need to be able to offer that service as standalone company
If security really would be the priority of Philips Hue / Signify they would not force you to upload your data to their computers computers in the very beginning.
Sad to see gaslightning or marketing bullshit in general still works a treat for companies even in the year 2023 - people (would) have easy access to literally all information like never before still they fall easily for lies just nicley presented
We all know customers (and voters) have a very short memory which obviously helps companies (and political parties) to continuously screw them over - again and again
Any one remembering the (later reversed) decisions of Philips Hue from 2015? No? That’s good! So go and buy some more signify products PLEASE
I created an account a long time ago for remote access (I think) and it drives me nuts how often I have to sign back into the iConnectHue app for remote access.
I only have 3 devices left…
At this point I think I’ll just try to get them to work on my regular Zigbee network.
Maybe somebody will create an animation builder like I’ve always wanted, maybe I could figure out how to code it myself.
memory which obviously helps companies (and political parties) to continuously screw them over - again and again 
