Comment by unsnap_biceps
3 days ago
Trust is hard won and easily lost. The entire reason I use Home Assistant is because I trust it to be the local, privacy focused home automation system. Things like this is a huge surprise that gives me pause to wonder what else it's doing that I wouldn't approve of. If I feel like I need to start setting up firewalls between HA and my internet to protect my privacy and data, I'm more likely to look towards alternatives and push my family members towards something else as well. This is the first time I've wondered if the project's ethics and culture matches what I expect out of the software.
Just my $0.02.
I've been considering home assistant, and yeah this gives me pause.
IMHO it's just not the kind of behavior that is expected by the people that use the software.
The fact that it didn't occur to anyone that this isn't a good idea makes me question other design decisions. When local-only isn't local-only, that's a problem.
Just to add to your point, I’ve deliberately avoided home-assistant since this kerfuffle where frenck was quite rude to the NixOS maintainers. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277
Ouch, what a painful read.
I avoided HA due to some technical issues published and the further development, but that quote absolutely cemented the decision in me:
> It made me decide to request for complete removal. > I suggest you honor that request and sit on your wounds.
What a.... colourful persona! I wonder if he was alluding to the potential and baseless C&D request or his opinion that one person's wish revokes MIT licence just because.
But..... That's quite painful to read.
That's a very bad look. Both of these incidents make me happy I haven't implemented Home Assistant yet, I'll look for something else.
Yeah.
Seeing this, I don't think I'm going to set up Home Assistant any time soon.