Cisco Strongarms Their Users Into the Cloud– Attempts to Do Away With Pesky Customer Privacy

In a move that has alienated myriad customers, last week Cisco strong-armed companies and individuals who are using their hardware–quite literally forcing them “into the cloud.”

Rolling out–or rather pushing– an update to their firmware for the Linksys Routers  EA2700, EA3500, and EA4500, Cisco forced them to sign up to their Connect Cloud in order to access the features.

The routers are shipped to consumers with an option selected by default that offers  the consumer an automatic firmware update. The issue is that at the same time Cisco has amended their privacy policy to state that even if the customer un-checks that automatic update, they will still update some components, denying you the right to choose what you want to do with a product that you legally purchased.

In further changes to the policy, Cisco will be keeping track of your information and holding on to information such as the health of your home network, the products that you own, what applications you are using and what features you’re using, as well as your network traffic, your internet history and any errors that you may hit along the way. In addition, according to the Cisco Connect Cloud, your account can be shut down if at any time while legally stealing your information, they find that you are infringing on any rights, looking at any pornography, or infringing on intellectual property rights.

Does it sound to you like perhaps Cisco climbed into the cloud with the media companies along the way?

In addition, Cisco may discontinue your account at any time they want, shutting  you down after snooping on your download history, your network and taking absolute control of the hardware that you own.

Cisco did a minor backpedal telling users how to roll back to the old firmware, but it was minor indeed, dealing with the information collection, however that hasn’t been enough to satisfy many customers some of whom relate that they will be  moving to other, and often cheaper– router companies which will be more considerate of their privacy.

In a time when privacy is of premiere concern to clients and to individuals, companies with good business sense are paying more attention to the consumer. Even Google has not compromised their paying customers  as completely… Hats off to Cisco–who finally managed to best the G-man at something.