<
https://doctorow.medium.com/the-enshittification-of-garage-door-openers-reveals-a-vast-and-deadly-rot-eed85da5b0ba>
"How could this happen? Owners of Chamberlain MyQ automatic garage door openers
just woke up to discover that the company had confiscated valuable features
overnight, and that there was nothing they could do about it.
Oh, we know what happened,
technically speaking. Chamberlain shut off the API
for its garage-door openers, which breaks their integration with home
automation systems like Home Assistant. The company even announced that it was
doing this, calling the integration an “unauthorized usage” of its products,
though the “unauthorized” parties in this case are the people who own
Chamberlain products:
<
https://chamberlaingroup.com/press/a-message-about-our-decision-to-prevent-unauthorized-usage-of-myq>
We even know
why Chamberlain did this. As
Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo points
out, shutting off the API is a way for Chamberlain to force its customers to
use its ad-beshitted, worst-of-breed app, so that it can make a few pennies by
nonconsensually monetizing its customers’ eyeballs:
<
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/chamberlain-blocks-smart-garage-door-opener-from-working-with-smart-homes/>
But
how did this happen? How did a giant company like Chamberlain come to
this enshittening juncture, in which it felt empowered to sabotage the products
it had already sold to its customers? How can this be legal? How can it be good
for business? How can the people who made this decision even look themselves in
the mirror?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
