Why One Man Is Fighting for Our Right to Control Our Garage Door Openers

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/technology/personaltech/why-one-man-is-fighting-for-our-right-to-control-our-garage-door-openers.html

https://archive.ph/bi15p

Why One Man Is Fighting for Our Right to Control Our Garage Door Openers
If companies can modify internet-connected products and charge subscriptions after people have already purchased them, what does it mean to own anything anymore?
By Brian X. Chen
Dec. 4, 2025

A few years ago, Paul Wieland, a 44-year-old information technology professional living in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, was wrapping up a home renovation when he ran into a hiccup. He wanted to be able to control his new garage door with his smartphone. But the options available, including a product called MyQ, required connecting to a company’s internet servers.

He believed a “smart” garage door should operate only over a local Wi-Fi network to protect a home’s privacy, so he started building his own system to plug into his garage door. By 2022, he had developed a prototype, which he named RATGDO, for Rage Against the Garage Door Opener.

He had hoped to sell 100 of his new gadgets just to recoup expenses, but he ended up selling tens of thousands. That’s because MyQ’s maker did what a number of other consumer device manufacturers have done over the last few years, much to the frustration of their customers: It changed the device, making it both less useful and more expensive to operate.

Chamberlain Group, a company that makes garage door openers, had created the MyQ hubs so that virtually any garage door opener could be controlled with home automation software from Apple, Google, Nest and others. Chamberlain also offered a free MyQ smartphone app.

...

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

...and what a great idea, rewarding people with bonuses and goodies if they figure out how to circumvent proprietary subscriptions. Wish I was techy!

DURec

[kimbutgar]

2. My mother in law took a fall in her house a few months ago and she was able to call 911 from her cell phine

The fire department in her senior community opened her garage door with a universal garage door opener and took her to the hospital. I never knew there was a gadget like this and I think the fire department utilizes that software also!

[sakabatou]

3. If buying isn't owning, pirating doesn't equal theft

Then again, my garage door opens via switch, not an app.

[Renew Deal]

4. There is a great Black Mirror episode about this

It's Season 7, Episode 1. It's called Common People. I recommend it.