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

    My smart plugs were carefully chosen so that I could immediately flash them with ESPHome, but that's because I am not normal. It shouldn't have to be that way.

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

    What brand/model do you use?

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

    Sonoff S31 (and I think this might have been the guide I used to flash them), but I think they've been discontinued and the replacement model might be more locked-down.

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

    That was the same guide I used! Bought like 20 of these plugs to integrate with HomeAssistant and espHome, added bonus was the energy monitoring.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago

    I've got eight of them and am not using them all, but sometimes I worry I should've gotten more when I had the chance, just in case.

    I miss the '90s, when you could count on new tech to get better instead of worse.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    Another good option if you dont wanna flash the S31 plugs yourself is getting your smart home plugs and things from Athom (athom.tech). They have a bunch of devices that come with ESPHome and Tasmota and other firmware preflashed.

    Not affiliated at all, just someone who wanted some private and local smart plugs and didnt wanna have to open up smart plugs and flash them manually or fight these manufacturers who lock down the devices more and more.

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

    Home assistant and Zigbee or Z-Wave to the rescue

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    • [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago

    Not all of us 😏

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    [–] 12 points 3 weeks ago

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    [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    Seems like even more reason to only use something like Z-Wave in an isolated network.

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    [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    I wanted to be able to turn a light off and on from two switches, in a room that only has one switch.

    I was able to do this with wireless switches that don't connect to any server.

    Besides the privacy malus, i don't need another hobby (home automation)

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

    I've always felt like the apps stuffed full of telemetry that have access to a lot of data on my phone are the most concerning part. It's annoying too that the devices themselves phone home.

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

    GrapheneOS has a built in network "Kill Switch" for each app individually on your phone.

    As soon as a app is installed it you are prompted to grant network access to the app, you can also choose to restrict it after the fact as well.

    There are also some other apps on Android that do the same that I have come across, but I have gotten pretty used to what GrapheneOS offers me now built in.

    This is useful for restricting network access for keyboard, galary, game, or emulator apps for example.

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

    Downside is the apps need internet/network access to control the smart home devices.

    I run pretty much all ESPHome or Tasmota devices since there's no app required, and it's all LAN based communication. But the complexity is certainly very high for those compared to off the shelf stuff.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    complexity is certainly very high for those compared to off the shelf stuff.

    but it tapers off very quickly, namely setting up the gateway might take half a day, pairing the first device might take an hour... but then the next 10 devices will probably take 10min.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Sorta, then ESPHome updates or something and everything breaks until fixes are made. It's certainly a lot more knowledge required to set up and manage them than most people have or care to learn about just for some smart devices.

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

    the answer is Yes we are.

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    • [+] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
    [deleted]
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    [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    I have people in myblife who say ice already sold out to Google might as well continue using them. I don't fight them they can do what they want.

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    [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Well I have one room where my budgies roam free. I use Airam programmable GU10 RGB lights to simulate day cycle. It's the only thing that's "calling home". Been too lazy to build a local solution. Everything else is run by ESP32 chips and bunch of raspberrys

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