No, they were legaly allowed to do that, but practicly, they wouldn’t be able to do that without serieusly hurting Athom itself, because of it’s user-base.
But a hugh corporation like LG can do this easily and for them it’s part of their business model.
And indirectly, since LG acquired Athom, they also aquired the data. They servers containing the data is now (indirect) property of LG.
Thus: the data has been sold to what used to be a third party.
I think you are trying to make a distinction in what the data can or will be used for according to GDPR regulations.
I am making the point that the misleading feelgood marketing sentence of “data will not be sold to a third party” should not be used anymore. Is frustrating, because it’s exactly what has happend.
And yes, i can understand why the founders sold Athom. And they have a right to do that.
Users and developers have put time in supporting building Homeh, but we didn’t put our careers on the line or anything.
So, for them, it’s afcourse nice that their hard work payed off.
But please stop saying that “data will not be sold to third party”, because it’s misleading just by making distinctions in certain words.
Although the news was of concern to me, I am going to hope for the best and give it time to see what happens before decide what to do.
I won’t remove any of my apps from the store, unless the terms change in some way that I don’t agree with. I will continue to use and support Homey as I have in the past.
I have no idea what terms were negotiated with the take over, but I agree LG are now in charge, so Athom have very little say in what happens next, even if they have the best intentions. However, that doesn’t mean it will be all doom and gloom, so as I said, I will wait and see.
Yea i’m feeling the same way. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing but i’m cautious.
I’m currently working on an App for the first time so it’s not the best motivation to keep on building but i’ve decided to support Homey and if it fails i’ll still have learned javascript ;).
On the other side I do like the more simplistic setup of Homey compared to the three-headed dog called Home Assistant. When an application can do alot it also means that it can become complex quite fast.
Fact is that the fate of Homey will mostly be decided with the amount of up-to-date integrations and their developers.
I’m going to try Hubitat. LG acquiring Athom is good for me, gave me motivation to try something else. At least Hubitat has antennas. I cannot understand why Homey Pro doesn’t. The reception is really poor in our house, I have many Z-Wave wall plugs and still it’s not reliable. Will let you know how Hubitat works and if it makes sense. It’s also much cheaper than Homey Pro.
While I would have preferred Athom staying 100% independent I do think some of you guys are being a bit rash in your decisions and opinions. Many use Smartthings as sort of a horror-example which I think is bullshit, that platform works quite well and still gets community apps and integrations without much issues, it also supports a tonne of non Samsung appliances from direct competitors, as long as LG has the same approach I think that’s OK.
Also if LG collects anonymus usage data on how much I use my smart sunshades or my smart dishwasher I think that’s fine if it improves the products.
I’ve worked with Athom quite a bit in my old profession and I would be very surprised if what they’re saying about this deal is not true. They’re good guys and if they think this is the right move for Homey then I assume that’s the case.
Ah, I see your point now Arie. It depends again, to which legal entity of LG (EU vs outside of EU) .
I would suggest to watch really updates to this document - Athom Legal
Those updates must be announced and I believe, in case of any change on the way they handle the data, they must get our voluntary consent (eg. can’t be forced one). Not the expert nor lawyer though.
Btw, maybe the way is to ask following :
9 Who to address regarding questions and requests of access, removal etc.
You can request access of the data that Athom processes about you at any time, and have these corrected or removed by sending a request to data@athom.com
Would be great to get some official statement on that from LG.
Ah, I see your point now Arie. It depends again, to which legal entity of LG (EU vs outside of EU).
Why would this make any difference? EU Data Protection laws apply to you regardless to where the company is located and your current privacy agreement is anyways with Athom B.V. and not LG (no matter which subsidiary).
Well. I’m leaving. My Homey Pro 2023 is now sold.
I really appreciate the help I’ve gotten from the community, many of those who have replied in this Thread have made the automations I’ve done with Homey possible.
The opinions and assumptions I have regarding LG purchasing Athom are my own, and mostly speculative, but I see no reason to continue configuring my smart house in Homey if the future is as uncertain as it is of now.
Thanks again to a great community, I wish you the best!
Indeed. But I meant the legal implications for LG “Thailand” vs LG “EU” entity will be much more complex. Eg. from data residency and processing point of view. But still, it’s not the key point.
My point is, our data were not sold to 3rd party, they are still maintained within Athom Legal obligations. Even they are owned by LG now, GDPR still applies. If LG would process our data in different way around, they can’t do that without our consent.
Also if anyone has ever tried to use a LG TV with a foreign account you might know that LG for sure as shit is current not even capable of handling any data in a global manner You literally need a separate LG account for each country you try to use it in (even within the EU) with different data privacy agreements and collection practices per country. But at least for the EU accounts you always have the option to not share your data with 3rd parties or advertisers.
Well, good deal for the founders of Athom. Respect for that! Unfortunately not well done.
It reminds me a bit of the American Car Show touring Germany every year. The event company hires the event ground. puts up some fences and pays the security. The guest bring their own american cars and Oldtimers and park them on the premisses. They pay for that. And visitors pay as well.
Athom has published some app. The biggest effort was done by private app developers, because they loved the independence of Athom and were enthusiastic about this. And from my side a big thank you for your efforts. They never received a Dollar for that. And here comes the point, I don´t know the terms and conditions for the app developers, but from my point of view it is a sell out of “goods” that were never owned by Athom. A year ago (or so) I already pointed out to Athom that they should pay developers or buy the app from the developers or develop all apps by themselves. Mayb Athom was short of money…I could understand that…but you should at least pay an amount to the app developers now.
In my opinion the logic is very bad behind your words. The value of Homey platforms (cloud and local) does not equal to the compatibility/function/service apps in the store. There is a lot of hw and software developments behind and other tremendous amount of work to build up and run a complete company, make it successful at multiple regions of the world.
Sorry for saying this, but in my opinion some of community developers are overestimate their weight in the success story of Homey. I definitely do not want to degrade or even humiliate community developers but beside of above described things there are about 70 apps developed by Athom and there are another huge amount of offical, vendor developed, financed or supported apps in the store.
Do not get me wrong, of course community developers are greatly important ingredient of the whole Homey thing, this why this platform has apps what never could happen because there is no vendor interest behind Sun Events, Device Capabilities, Public Holidays and many others (sorry for those I did not mention) but in case of compatibility apps, these should be developed and maintained by vendors and manufacturers of brands. But it will happen only if the platform overgrows DIY smart home enthusiast and goes to acquire a lot wider user groups. This is where LG can help a lot.
To appreciate the great efforts of community developers, app store needs to be upgraded to be able offer apps for money. As far as I know Aqara app has 140k+ users. For even one $ or € per each, developer could has earned a ton of money…
…if payable apps come, again LG can help to expand the user base of Homey apps to turn app developments a good business instead of a favor to the rest of users.
If money is expected for everything you contribute to something that you enjoy then the entire open source scene and the Linux platform would die overnight. Imagine every community developer for Home Assistant wanting payment from Nabu Casa.
Community developers are massively important and they deserve equally massive credit, but if you start developing Homey-integrations with profit i mind I think you’re on the wrong track. There would not be a platform to develop for if Athom didn’t do their part.
For me the solution is what you’ve proposed, let community developers charge a small sum for the integration if they want. I would easily pay a few € for a well maintained community integration, maybe even per year or something. Emphasis on well maintained as I’d feel pretty miffed if a community developer charged me money for an integration that they’ll just remove when they get mad at Athom.
I must have missed that the founders of Nabu Casa received a $50 million payout.
Both Home Assistant and Linux are projects that have ideals, and have safeguards in place to prevent those ideals from being “tainted” by someone selling out.
You literally need a separate LG account for each country you try to use it in (even within the EU) with different data privacy agreements and collection practices per country. But at least for the EU accounts you always have the option to not share your data with 3rd parties or advertisers.
