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I intentionally avoided Nest products like the plague when replacing my parents smoke alarms due to many stories like this [1][2]. Poor leadership and smart hom

by tmpz22 6y ago

I intentionally avoided Nest products like the plague when replacing my parents smoke alarms due to many stories like this [1][2]. Poor leadership and smart home devices do not a good marriage make. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11832828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11832828 [2]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nest-camera-hacked-hacker-spoke-to-baby-hurled-obscenities-at-couple-using-nest-camera-dad-says/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nest-camera-hacked-hacker-spoke...

kyrra 6y ago
(googler, opinions are my own) I honestly like bradfitz's youtube video the best to show the Nest Protect (the smoke alarm) issues[0]. They have since fixed these issues, as this was the gen one protect. For your #2 (no insider knowledge), that looks like people's accounts getting hacked and then the hackers talking through them. All home camera cloud based cameras have had these cases. I think Nest moving to Google account login system for Nest is probably the best protection against this kind of thing happening. Account takeovers happen, and guarding against them at scale is hard (especially when people reuse passwords). For #1, I think the culture has changed a lot as it's been absorbed into Google's hardware division. Hopefully it's better, but I couldn't say anything of value there. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY (warning, loud video)
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  I swore-off Nest entirely when they shut down Nest API access to anyone but themselves. That killed it for me because I wanted to control my HVAC thermostat from my PC and without firing up Chrome or Bluestacks. I also wanted to log my own long-term thermostat and front door lock history as the Nest app only shows 10 days tops, without CSV export either (why?! That’s a horrible artificial limitation!) The second thing was seeing Google continue to somehow justify Nest Cameras’ lack of local storage as somehow being a good thing (check the mod posts on the Nest support forums - it’s laughable). That’s idiocy. My house’s coax cable conduit is exposed where it enters the house - it’s trivial to sneak-around the perimeter and snip the coax with a pair of kitchen scissors and then all of my Nest cameras are useless. Why can’t they be configured to save to my LAN’s NAS as a failover? It sucks for me that the decision to shut down external access to the Nest API was made literally days after I dropped over $1500 on Nest kit - but since then I haven’t bought any more - I’ll be transitioning over to other brands that respect me as a consumer, instead of locking me in to their ecosystem of products designed around the demonstrably false assumption that a home’s internet connection is 100% available.

by tmpz22 6y ago

kyrra 6y ago

(googler, opinions are my own) I honestly like bradfitz's youtube video the best to show the Nest Protect (the smoke alarm) issues[0]. They have since fixed these issues, as this was the gen one protect. For your #2 (no insider knowledge), that looks like people's accounts getting hacked and then the hackers talking through them. All home camera cloud based cameras have had these cases. I think Nest moving to Google account login system for Nest is probably the best protection against this kind of thing happening. Account takeovers happen, and guarding against them at scale is hard (especially when people reuse passwords). For #1, I think the culture has changed a lot as it's been absorbed into Google's hardware division. Hopefully it's better, but I couldn't say anything of value there. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY (warning, loud video)

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
I swore-off Nest entirely when they shut down Nest API access to anyone but themselves. That killed it for me because I wanted to control my HVAC thermostat from my PC and without firing up Chrome or Bluestacks. I also wanted to log my own long-term thermostat and front door lock history as the Nest app only shows 10 days tops, without CSV export either (why?! That’s a horrible artificial limitation!) The second thing was seeing Google continue to somehow justify Nest Cameras’ lack of local storage as somehow being a good thing (check the mod posts on the Nest support forums - it’s laughable). That’s idiocy. My house’s coax cable conduit is exposed where it enters the house - it’s trivial to sneak-around the perimeter and snip the coax with a pair of kitchen scissors and then all of my Nest cameras are useless. Why can’t they be configured to save to my LAN’s NAS as a failover? It sucks for me that the decision to shut down external access to the Nest API was made literally days after I dropped over $1500 on Nest kit - but since then I haven’t bought any more - I’ll be transitioning over to other brands that respect me as a consumer, instead of locking me in to their ecosystem of products designed around the demonstrably false assumption that a home’s internet connection is 100% available.