Editing Bambu Lab Authorization Control System (section)

==Customer reactions==

Customer reactions have been overwhelmingly negative.<ref>https://forum.bambulab.com/t/bambu-studio-1-10-2-public-beta/134549/4</ref><ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1i2psvz/firmware_update_introducing_new_authorization/</ref> Bambu Lab has historically pushed cloud-based printer interaction while offering limited LAN mode functionality<ref name="bambulab-forum-3643/9" />. Many customers argue that the security issues this locked-down firmware claims to address are actually consequences of the company's cloud-based design choices rather than inherent risks of local network control,<ref name="bambulab-forum-134549/12" /, which continues to infuriate users who are now told that security is the justification for a loss of freedom. As a result of the announcement of the shift, customer ratings on sites like Trustpilot rapidly dropped,<ref>https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bambulab.com?sort=recency</ref> with many reviews citing the restrictions as the reason for the bad reviews.

The shift raises privacy concerns as the restricted LAN mode functionality will now push more users into Bambu's cloud infrastructure for processing user print data, including file names and print settings. 

Many community members and customers ask whether the significant costs of maintaining and deploying this cloud infrastructure might lead to future monetization of these now-mandatory services,<ref name="bambulab-forum-3643/5" /> with subscriptions required for features that once worked with local access.

It should be noted, however, that so far '''no changes have been made or indicated for those not using the cloud service'''. Past firmware updates made it possible to avoid using the cloud service completely by allowing pairing the slicer via IP address and access key and doing offline firmware updates without having to sign the printer into the service, not even temporarily, keeping local functionality unchanged.