[dns_snek]

> 'Local' unfortunately isn't something decided at design time, it's decided when someone connects it to a network.

It's obviously connected to the public internet when it talks to cloud servers, and that's somehow (claimed to be) secure.

Comparing a good cloud API with a poorly designed local API is a false dichotomy. Would you set up your cloud servers with default credentials of admin:admin?

Have a hidden physical switch that toggles local control, and require a physical button press to (re-)generate secure credentials. Have the user upload TLS certificates (non-optional), then hand over the credentials over a secure connection. There, the security of local API should now be up to par with the cloud connection.

[kube-system]

There's a at least a dozen ways for set up a secure local API. Whether it is possible was never the question. The question is whether Joe Blow can pick one up off the shelf at Best Buy and successfully implement it. The answer to that question is no. Joe Blow wants to download the app, click the button, and make it work. This is 99.999% of the users that buy something off the shelf at the big box store.

Asking why a Haier dishwasher doesn't have a local API is like asking why a Toyota Sienna doesn't have configurable launch control, power-take-off, or a fifth-wheel. The target market segment isn't looking for those features.

[dns_snek]

> Joe Blow wants to download the app, click the button, and make it work. This is 99.999% of the users that buy something off the shelf at the big box store.

And I don't dispute that, this option should remain available. What I dispute is the idea that the lack of local control is somehow beneficial to the end user by "protecting" them from vulnerabilities.

The only thing such arrangement is protecting is the manufacturer's bottom line, by allowing them to 1. harvest and sell data, 2. take away features or start pushing upsells when they need to boost their quarterly profits.

> Asking why a Haier dishwasher doesn't have a local API is like asking why a Toyota Sienna doesn't have configurable launch control, power-take-off, or a fifth-wheel.

Well that's just ridiculous, all of those features have significant per-unit cost to implement. Exposing some form of local control would take, if we're being generous, a couple of person-weeks of effort and it would cover the entire product line with a marginal per-unit cost of a single switch.