So I just learned that apparently Home Assistant has absolutely no user account control. My roommate has no need to access the lights, electrical outlets, etc. in my room, and has absolutely no reason to be able to see my phone’s battery charge level and charger status.
I don’t give access to the app. I choose what is exposed to HomeKit and what is exposed to Alexa
there is a feature request with a lot of good comments on their forum. The summary of the last time I checked it was on the lines: “it is a reasonable request but it is terribly hard to implement it correctly and since we currently have no capacity to do it we prefer leaving it not implemented instead of offering any alternative which could give a false sense of security”
There are basic, basic permission controls and hiding info from non-admin users. But it’s nasty for a big setup.
I imagine it would be implemented in the future, but priorities aren’t there yet.
I agree though, would be a nice feature to have.
It’s a feature that’s often been requested, but hasn’t appeared yet. The best option out of the box is creating non-Administrator users and then creating custom dashboards and panes per user with only the controls they need.
But that doesn’t stop a user from poking around still, because they can still access all devices and entities through features like the Logbook - which is always accessible because sidebar items can’t be controller per user.
There are some HACS bits that might be able to lock things down a bit further, like Kiosk and Guest modes.
I’ve heard some people get round this by setting up inebriations with Apple/Google/Amazon ecosystem, only exposing the desired entities/devices, and then giving others access to those and keeping them out of Home Assistant altogether.
It’s a feature set I wish they would add/expand, I’m sure anyone with a home office and mischievous children would agree.
Ugly hack that I’ve done: setup a completely separate HA instance, then sync only the components that the user needs using remote ha
What I would do is install kiosk mode from HACS. Build a dashboard for them that only shows what you want them to see, then add kiosk mode so they can’t access the menus. Set it as their default and it should be fine
This just hides the menus. They can still access all of Home Assistant.
You can require user login to HA and then disable visibility to dashboards for that (non-admin) user, etc… wouldn’t that work?
I know it doesn’t inherently fix the problem, but unless they really go poking or messing with it (most users wont) it should keep them contained to the subset of options tou want them to use.
Sounds like a use case for touchscreen wall controllers like Shelly ones. Controlling things in your house by unlocking your phone, opening the app, finding the right dashboard, pressing buttons is a poor user experience compared with operating a switch on the wall.
True, but adding a light switch still doesn’t prevent their roommate from opening their app and turning on their lights.
Don’t you have a PIN on your phone at all?
Irrelevant, as that data can simply be retrieved inside HA.
