I have no problem with home automation as long as it is not connected to cloud servers,  In fact, I personally would not even leave it connected to the internet 24/7 and only enable the connection for certain periods.

The story below broke a few days ago and numerous channels have reported on it. It concerns Amazon accusing a customer of racism and purposefully shutting down the entire smart home.

PS.  I prefer not using and not sharing Youtube links.  I prefer Odysee, Bitchute and Rumble, but I could not find this Louis Rossmann link on the other channels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfiIXooD77s
 

 

22 minutes ago, Modina said:

I have no problem with home automation as long as it is not connected to cloud servers,  In fact, I personally would not even leave it connected to the internet 24/7 and only enable the connection for certain periods.

The story below broke a few days ago and numerous channels have reported on it. It concerns Amazon accusing a customer of racism and purposefully shutting down the entire smart home.

PS.  I prefer not using and not sharing Youtube links.  I prefer Odysee, Bitchute and Rumble, but I could not find this Louis Rossmann link on the other channels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfiIXooD77s
 

 

I think this is why one shouldn't ever bet their whole architecture on one ecosystem. And what makes HomeAssistant / Matter so good for consumers. 

I had my heatpump connected to Sonoff cloud with a Sonoff pow, then my internet line went down and I had to make a hotspot on my phone to get the smart switch online so that I can get hot water. The integration should have provided local lan control but it still appeared offline. (I also had the occasional problem where the switch did not trigger for some unexplained reason).

The next day after my internet line was restored I re-flashed tasmota and never had any issues again. For that exact reason I would rather buy hardware that can be reflashed with opensource firmware. 

 

17 hours ago, Superfly said:

Yep ... a private VPN .. few are able to do it without some IT knowledge.

I'm sorry but I probably missed the point of what you are trying to say, my switches are only connected to my WIFI, but they are all running either Tasmota or ESPHome (very basic). My WIFI is connected to the internet via Fibre, but my smart home does not have any dependency on the cloud and can run without internet but I would lose my Telegram notifications/commands. I use tailscale that is technically a VPN to access my home network from anywhere, but then again it as simple as installing an app.

Running a local "server" is the future of smart homes. We all need a little server the size of a TV box to run home assistant that can integrate unrelated products into one smart and efficient home