Google announced the end of support for early Nest Thermostats in a support document earlier this year that largely flew under the radar. As of October 25, first and second generation units released in 2011 and 2012, respectively, will be unpaired and removed from the Google Nest or Google Home app.
Users will no longer be able to control their thermostats remotely via their smartphone, receive notifications, or change settings from a mobile device. End-of-support also disables third-party assistants and other cloud-based features including multi-device Eco mode and Nest Protect connectivity.
There is a
class action“mass arbitration” against Google for this: https://www.classaction.org/nest-thermostat-support-arbitrationAdditionally, the Fulu Foundation has a bounty reward out for anyone who is able to get these working with something like Home Assistant.
The pot is currently at $12,856.00 https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/nest-learning-thermostat-gen-1-2
In the U.S., since doing so would circumvent measures put in place on these devices, publishing how to do this would go against sec. 1201 of the DMCA. This has a risk of a maximum sentence of 3-5 years in a Federal Prison. You can still privately show the Fulu Foundation how it is done, and they will be able to use this information to help their case in their attempt to reform this law.
If you live in the U.S., you can also help by letting your representatives know about this. Here’s an ActionNetwork page that Fulu set up so that you can easily do so: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/right-to-repair-reform-section-1201-of-the-dmca
Allowing these massive corporations to completely subvert our rights and force “arbitration” is fucking criminal. The fact that this is just accepted practice now in the US is pretty fucking infuriating.
The website you linked to says that it’s not a class action suit, but a “mass arbitration” which I’ve never heard of. It also claims that Google has a “no class action” clause in its warranty/user agreement. I don’t see how that’s legal, but whatever. I also wonder if that clause was there at the time of purchase for gen 1 and gen 2 thermostats.
Thanks, I missed that detail. It’s probably because of the “no class action” clause that this is a “mass arbitration”.
Unfortunately that usually means that Google is paying a specific company to decide on the outcome of the case. in this case it looks like American Arbitration Association has a contract with Google.
They’re supposed to be fair for both sides, but it’s been shown that they almost always rule in favor of the company that has pre-selected them.
If anyone is in this situation, they will likely have a much better chance by convincing a judge to allow a different 3rd party to arbitrate the case.
Do you still have a representative government where you live? I have a Republican House rep and trying to get him to do anything even remotely consumer friendly is just masochism.
If you can point out to republican voters how the DMCA fucks them too, you can bury your shitty GOP rep in calls and letters which might make them change.
Maybe.
Until they get a small bribe, and then they won’t give a shit again.