Ecobee3 Lite

Ecobee3 Lite

Ecobee
WiFi Bluetooth

Data da avaliação: 9 de Novembro de 2022

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A Mozilla investigou por 8 horas
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Opinião da Mozilla

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Votos das pessoas: Razoavelmente assustador

Ecobee now has three smart thermostats in their line up -- the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium, Smart Thermostat Enhanced, and the Ecobee3 Lite. Their Ecobee3 Lite version comes with the basic smart thermostat things like the ability to control the thermostat through an app or Apple Watch, schedule your thermostat when you’re away on vacation, and save energy with smart algorithms. It’s a lean, (probably not) mean, fairly decent from a privacy perspective machine.

Also good to know, in 2021, Generac bought Ecobee as part of their plans to expand into the “intelligent home energy ecosystem.” So far, this acquisition doesn’t seem to have changed Ecobee’s strong commitment to privacy. Here’s hoping it never does.

O que pode acontecer se algo der errado?

Hey look, a smart home tech maker that seems to value their users’ privacy. It’s nice to see. The first point in Ecobee’s privacy policy is what we wish all companies would say and do: “Your personal information and data belongs to you.” Good work Ecobee! They also say, “If we collect it, we safeguard it.” Another good work Ecobee! The thing is, many companies crow about how much they care and protect their users’ privacy. Too many times this crowing is empty words written by PR departments. For Ecobee though, we really do think they are pretty good at protecting and respecting their users’ privacy (especially compared to many of the Big Tech companies out there).

Ecobee does collect personal information on you. Things like name, address, email, telephone number, online identifiers such as IP addresses and device IDs, location information, as well as things the smart thermostat learns about your home like thermal and house size information. That’s potentially a lot of information gathered. The good news is, Ecobee says they never sell your personal data. And they don’t seem to share your personal information with third parties for targeted, interest based advertising, which is also good. So, all that data this smart thermostat collects on you probably isn’t going to be shared around the internet to target you with tons of ads to buy sweaters because you keep your house so cold all winter long (we hope).

The biggest privacy concern you’ll likely find with this smart thermostat is with the third party voice assistants you can use it with. The voice requests you make through Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple’s Siri of your smart thermostat will let Amazon, Google, or Apple know more about you. But hey, Amazon, Google, and Apple probably know way too much about you already.

Ecobee reportedly also stood up to Amazon when they demanded Ecobee share more user data with them. From The Verge, “...the online retail giant asked Ecobee to share data from its Alexa-enabled smart thermostats, even when the customer wasn’t actively using the voice assistant. Ecobee reportedly refused to have its devices constantly report back to Amazon about the state of the user’s home, including data on which doors were locked or unlocked and the set temperature. The reasoning being that enabling its devices to report this data to Amazon would be a violation of its customer’s trust.” Good Ecobee. Bad Amazon.

Ecobee does ask users if they would like to donate their anonymized data from their smart thermostat to share with energy scientists to help “design more efficient and sustainable homes.” That seems good on a couple fronts. First, Ecobee asks users to donate their data with an opt-in rather than opt-out option. Second, the goal of this data sharing is a good one, not to target you with ads, but to help scientists save the planet. Again, good work Ecobee!

What’s the worst that could happen with your Ecobee3 Lite? This smart thermostat (like the Premium and Enhanced versions) does have the ability to schedule your thermostat while you’re away on vacation. If that data were to accidentally leak out onto the internet through a hack or bug it could let others know you are away from your home for a while. That could be creepy information to have in the hands of people you don’t know…or even people you do know. This probably isn’t likely to happen. Still, good to remember it could. All in all though, Ecobee is one of the best smart thermostat makers out there from a privacy perspective.

Dicas para se proteger

  • If you connect to Alexa, delete your historical voice recordings from time to time, by saying “delete what I just said"
  • When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data.
  • Do not sign up with third-party accounts. Better just log in with email and strong password.
  • Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc
  • Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless neccessary)
  • Keep your app regularly updated
  • Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
  • Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
  • mobile

Pode me bisbilhotar? informações

Câmera

Dispositivo: Não

Aplicativo: Não

Microfone

Dispositivo: Não

Aplicativo: Sim

Rastreia localização

Dispositivo: Não

Aplicativo: Sim

O que pode ser usado para se inscrever?

Que dados a empresa coleta?

Como a empresa usa esses dados?

Ecobee does not sell nor shares personal data for advertisement.

"If you agree to participate in ecobee’s Donate Your Data, you will be anonymously sharing your Device Data with ecobee’s research partners. Your Personal Information will not be shared. ecobee’s research partners will protect your data in accordance with this Privacy Agreement. For more information, see ecobee.com/donateyourdata."

Como você pode controlar seus dados?

It is unclear if all users regardless of location can get their data deleted.

"If you do not wish ecobee to have a copy of your Personal Information, you can request its removal by visiting Profile in your ecobee mobile app, where you can select “Delete my account”. Or you can request its removal by contacting ecobee Customer Service at 1.877.932.6233 or by submitting a request on our Personal Information Management page. In order to protect your access to the ecobee Services and to guard against mischief or theft, ecobee may contact you to confirm your request and may request additional Personal Information solely for the purpose of authenticating the legitimacy of the request. Following such a request, ecobee will delete all Personal Information that it is not required to retain for the purposes of regulatory, tax, insurance, litigation or other legal requirements. ecobee may also retain such data for the purposes of safety, security, fraud prevention and detection.

As your Personal Information may include your email address, any ecobee Account Data associated with this email address must also be deleted. Due to the nature of Internet-connected devices, deletion of this ecobee Account Data will remove the ability to remotely control your ecobee Devices via the web or mobile app. Some of your ecobee Devices’ smart features may also be reduced or removed. ecobee Devices will continue to provide basic functionality (i.e., as a thermostat or light switch), but without remote access or smart features. Remote access and smart functionality can be restored by creation of a new ecobee account, but all previously-collected Device Data and settings will have been permanently deleted."

Qual é o histórico conhecido da empresa na proteção de dados dos usuários?

Médio

No known incidents in the last 3 years.

Este produto pode ser usado offline?

Não

Informações de privacidade fáceis de entender?

Não

Links para informações de privacidade

Este produto atende aos nossos padrões mínimos de segurança? informações

Sim

Criptografia

Sim

All network traffic is encrypted.

Senha forte

Sim

A password is required for the web portal and mobile app.

Atualizações de segurança

Sim

Gerencia vulnerabilidades

Sim

Ecobee runs a bug bounty program, which means that anyone who finds a security issue and discloses it responsibly may get paid.

Política de privacidade

Sim

O produto usa inteligência artificial? informações

Sim

Esta inteligência artificial não é confiável?

Não foi possível determinar

Que tipo de decisões a inteligência artificial faz sobre você ou por você?

Ecobee smart thermostats have a feature called eco+. It leverages AI to tailor temperature settings, transition to clean energy when available, and optimize cost savings.

A empresa é transparente sobre como funciona a inteligência artificial?

Sim

O usuário tem controle sobre os recursos da inteligência artificial?

Sim

Features such as eco+ are opt in.
*privacidade não incluída

Mergulhe mais fundo

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  • The Privacy Risks of Your Smart Thermostat
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  • Donate your data
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  • Amazon tried to coerce Ecobee into collecting private user data, the WSJ reports
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  • Ecobee’s smart thermostat now supports Siri voice control
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  • The Best Smart Thermostat
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  • Generator company Generac announces plans to buy Ecobee
    CNET

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