This week Amazon shut a customer's entire smart home down after accusing them of racism. Have they over-stepped? This is my reaction.======================...
They wouldn’t be able to do that if all of their devices were in Home Assistant
Of course, the ideal would be that nobody buys cloud-connected stuff anymore but that’s just not realistic. Most people have no idea of the risk involved until it bites them and even if they have, they will usually buy the cheapest thing anyway.
I believe that this is a case for regulation. Companies like Amazon, Google, etc. can just disable people’s accounts quoting their internal policies and customers have little to no recourse when something like this happens.
An Apple, Google or Microsoft account isn’t just a private contract between two consenting parties anymore. In order to function in this world, you NEED to have these accounts and they should be recognized as such.
Just like the power or water company can’t just shut you off without good reasons and appeals procedures, we should have the same options here. There should be oversight, an appeals process and independent decision making. Not just a single company and it’s faceless support AIs and internal policy documents.
Of course, the ideal would be that nobody buys cloud-connected stuff anymore but that’s just not realistic. Most people have no idea of the risk involved until it bites them and even if they have, they will usually buy the cheapest thing anyway.
I believe that this is a case for regulation. Companies like Amazon, Google, etc. can just disable people’s accounts quoting their internal policies and customers have little to no recourse when something like this happens.
An Apple, Google or Microsoft account isn’t just a private contract between two consenting parties anymore. In order to function in this world, you NEED to have these accounts and they should be recognized as such.
Just like the power or water company can’t just shut you off without good reasons and appeals procedures, we should have the same options here. There should be oversight, an appeals process and independent decision making. Not just a single company and it’s faceless support AIs and internal policy documents.