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The Smart Home Wi-Fi Trap: Are We All Being Conned by Convenience? (unknownuniverse.uk)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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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!

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[–] 49 points 3 weeks ago (16 children)

The Smart Home Trap: Is It Really Too Difficult To Use A Light Switch?

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  • [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago* (1 child)

    yes, actually.

    the one of the switches in my office controls one of the only outlets, which has a pc plugged into it. so yes, a zigbee smart bulb is the better option than just flipping the switch. it's a single widget on my phone, and there's a remote, and i can control it from my pc. it just runs off home assistant, there's no internet involved, and i don't even have to use the wifi for it.

    i swear you people just invent difficulty out of nothing.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

    I think opening an app to turn on a lamp is more work than it’s worth. We actually avoid anything that requires an app at this point.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    I have a few “smart” plugs. I generally don’t use the app to turn them off or on, but being able to schedule them is what I think makes them valuable.

    I bought the cheapest coffeemaker I could find that has a physical switch and plugged it into a smart switch so that it turns on every morning, Monday through Friday, at a specific time. On the weekends I do use the app because I can start the coffee brewing while I am still in bed and it will be ready when I get downstairs.

    Could all of this be done without an IoT device? Yes, in college I had one of those old school mechanical timer switches to do the same thing. It is just that now I get more control over how it works.

    The point of these isn’t just to “use an app” to do things you could easily do yourself, but to get additional functionality from an app that simply pushing a button couldn’t do.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    I think you just described my coffee maker that I got from Costco. That’s a lot of extra steps to make a device that already exists.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Yes, a coffee maker that connects to the internet does exist, usually for more than I spent on everything involved, and also usually with its own headaches.

    I find that usually those devices all want their OWN app installed, so instead of just your home assistant, you have HA, and the Mr Coffee app, and the GE app, and whatever else, each with their own requests for telemetry and whatnot.

    Building your own out of simple devices gives you more control and an easier vector to secure.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago

    I have lived in 2 locations with the light switch at the front door, doesn't control the entry lights. I was forced to use smart bulbs to keep from walking into a pitch black house.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago*

    I just turned on my office light within Snap, an open source environment to teach kid programming, literally minutes ago. I didn't even know that was possible 1h ago.

    As others pointed out the point isn't to replace a switch, the point is to get efficient or creative or both with your home. Of course if your mind can handle a switch with a light bulb, no need to do more.

    PS: no data left my home, no WiFi requirement, no third-party proprietary app. Sure most "Smart Home" setup are horrible in many ways, both privacy and security, but it's not because the most popular way sucks that all ways do.

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