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Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud
(www.home-assistant.io)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If I use Home Assistant for control and block the Hue hub from the internet, will things keep functioning as they are today?
I like how my stuff works and don't want them to mess me up.
I would make sure the firmware can't be updated. Uninstall the Hue app for sure.
To be safe long-term I would probably suggest to throw away the Hue hub entirely and get a Zigbee USB dongle for your Home Assistant server. Personally I've had no issues with the ConBee II. Home Assistant also released their own dongle earlier this year, called SkyConnect, which I've heard is pretty good as well.
(This is assuming that all Hue devices are based on ZigBee, which I believe they all are, based on this useful database.)
That's likely the path that I'll end up taking. Everything hue related that I have is Zigbee.