I recently found out that every one of my Window / Door sensors has been changed over from Local to cloud execution. I spoke to a government official about this and they say it is a violation of law and privacy, and that Samsung has done this to also profit from us. How do we fix this, or do we bankrupt Samsung in Lawsuits?
How did you manage this?
Are you still using IDE?
It is probably not a violation of privacy because the terms of service that you agreed to when you set up your account did not promise local execution, say that functions can run in the cloud, and say that Samsung can make changes to the functionality of the system whenever they choose. It is what it is.
I am not sure what government official you spoke with, but in most of the countries where SmartThings provides authorized service contract law is what governs situations like this, and the terms of service are the contract you were offered when you set up your account.
If you want a system with guaranteed local operation you will need to choose one from another company, like Hubitat or Homeseer.
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They cannot just choose to change something that benefits just a single part without a persons permission, especially when this falls under surveillance and stalking laws.
Those concerned about privacy should also be aware that all SmartThings device activity, whether the execution was local or in the cloud, is recorded in your account history in the cloud. So I’m not sure there really is a privacy difference between cloud execution and local execution on the smartthings platform. 
again, this is covered by the terms of service you agreed to when you set up the account. So you already gave them your permission for that kind of tracking.
It sounds like smartthings probably isn’t a match for what you want. That’s true for many people, but fortunately, there are alternatives like hubitat and Homeseer if you do want something both local and private.
Certainly, you can pursue a complaint with a government agency if you want to and see what happens. Even very large companies (like Facebook) are sometimes found in violation.
But as far as protecting your data on an everyday basis, smartthings is still primarily cloudbased even if all your devices are eligible for local execution. I don’t think there’s any way to turn off the logging functions, that’s what shows in your history. And of course all the app requests go through the cloud, they aren’t communicating locally to the hub. (technically it would be possible for them to do so, but it’s just not how smartthings is designed.) and every notification you get that, say, a Sensor is open, has gone through the cloud.
I think concerns in this area are valid, I just don’t think smartthings has ever offered a privacy first solution.
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Sorry Simon, You won’t have standing because of the terms of service and yes they can and do change things all the time. There’s a reason they design the ToS the way they do and only offer account creation on certain servers and geographies. Thier ability to reach in and change things is ultimately why I no longer use thier service for my day to day.
I used to work in a software publisher and knew the lawyers for the firm very well - because of end user support issues. Trust me a big corporate legal department with the Samsung lawyers are already very aware of what they CAN do because they won’t allow the company to operate in any geography wherever they can’t do it. This is probably the reason for the answer of lost of the questions on this forum of ‘why can’t I use smartapp X in Geography Y.’. Because of there’s a question. A lawyer’s default answer is no.
If there was a snowball’s chance in hades they could get sued for normal operations (changing configuration on the fly in a cloud first configuration) in your country. You wouldn’t be able to create an account. If you don’t like that they can do it you may want to look at other alternatives.
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A large legal company who wants to take it on Pro Bono seems to imply a huge legal case exists. TOC’s are just not blanket agreements they can pick and choose as they please as been proven over and over again in the past; they also made it clear over and over again they wanted everything to be local control. Also, having an alarm system they are now demanding to be fully cloud base brings into numerous other issues, especially when they had their past ATT alliance which could work fully local even for activating alarm systems. When some very bad person (not me or known to me) hacks this and then uses this now live data to murder, rape, hurt or stalk another, SS will be bankrupted in lawsuits. It is one thing ST having a history of data, and other having live access to someone’s movements.
OK… you lost me. When has ST ever clearly stated this?
Between government officials and large legal company … dude - really?
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