Ember Mug - privacy review

Ember Mug – privacy review

Can the Ember Mug² be used offline without any cloud accounts, and does it respect your privacy? Keep reading to find out!

E

Overall rating

Cloud requirements

When you take the Ember mug out of the box, it is pre-set to a temperature of 57 degrees celsius. If you are happy with this, you can use the mug without ever connecting it to the app. However, to set the temperature to anything other than the default, the app is required, as there are no physical buttons to control this on the mug.

The Ember app is available on the Android and Apple play store. When launching the app for the first time, we are guided through the initial pairing process. Once we have found our cup and are about to complete our process, a forced login screen appears. This means that in order to control the temperature of your mug or perform firmware updates, a cloud account is required.

The Ember app allows you to control the temperature of your cup and configure presets. This functionality does not inherently rely on anything cloud-connected, as commands are sent from your phone directly to your mug over Bluetooth.

D

Cloud requirements

Data portability

The app or website does not allow you to export your data. Furthermore, it was not possible to access your profile from within the app at the time of testing.

F

Data portability

Ecosystem openness

Ember does not provide any API for use with your mug. There are no third party apps or open source code available to get the cup to work without the proprietary app. There is an effort to reverse-engineer the Bluetooth protocol.

F

Ecosystem openness

Data privacy

Ember provides a well-written privacy policy and a terms of service. They do honor the GDPR. While the privacy policy is not overreaching, there is no way to opt out of data collection from inside the app. There is also no way to get an automated GDPR export.

C

Data privacy

Tested on Android using version 1.0 of the Unwanted Cloud methodology.

This review was amended on September 28, 2022 in response to a comment from lentzit.

While we try to update reviews after circumstances change, keep in mind that the review might not fully reflect the current situation, especially if the review was posted a long time ago.

Reviewed on

September 19, 2022

4 responses

lentzit

September 28, 2022

The Mug can be used without the app right out of box. Default settings do a good job. You only use color change and temperature control (profiles) if needed. I did lower the temperatur for my coffe to get more time from the battery

Reply
1. Stanislav (UC Staff)
  
  September 28, 2022
  
  Thank you for your comment lentzit, you are correct! I have added information about using the mug without the app and modified the final privacy score.
  
  Reply
Patrick

February 20, 2024

When I bought my ember mug, there was no requirement to log in and no indication that it would become necessary in the future. Having used it happily for some time, the update on the app suddenly introduced this requirement and has now effectively reduced the functionality of the mug unless I agree to sign up and share data. This is effectively a unilateral change in the terms under which I purchased the mug and is an unacceptable breach of privacy.
Having recommended the product to friends in the past, I would now actively discourage anyone from buying an ember mug. I will be buying an alternative.

Reply
James

April 5, 2024

My experience is exactly the same as Patrick’s. Suddenly I have to give Ember my email? WTF? I’m furious. There is no good reason for this except for data mining. The mug was working perfectly well with the app as it was, without having to open an account. I’m going to start campaigning against this effing company online 😡

Reply