Mainstream tech advice treats cheap Wi-Fi smart plugs as harmless convenience, totally glossing over how much telemetry leaks out to overseas cloud servers by default.
Expecting casual users to set up VLANs and firewall drop rules just to stop a £10 light bulb from phoning home is a bit of a joke.
True privacy means local control without corporate middlemen.
Original content by The Unknown Universe, written by a human and not AI generated!
So many words to defend not wanting to flip a light switch. “Smart” stuff should still exist for accessibility purposes, it would be easier to strictly regulate it if it was used explicitly and exclusively as a medical device, but your average person in nearly all instances can and should be using a light switch manually. Making everything complex and eventually ewaste is trading our collective future for your temporary convenience.