Someone commented above that it’s getting harder to buy good that don’t need an internet connection. For instance, I can’t find a new TV near me that is not “smart” (a word I am tired of hearing). Very soon, choices will be quite limited for new purchases.
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Well, shit, they can lie now.
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The safest approach to take is to build your home system on a non-routable protocol, such as Z-wave, Insteon, X-10, or something similar. It’s not possible for these devices to connect to the internet by themselves. They require a gateway/bridge device if you want to access them remotely. That gateway is then the one thing you have to worry about securing.
I have a Vera, which is a commercial local home automation hub that does not require the cloud or a cloud account. You can optionally configure it to use their cloud, if you like the security of not exposing your system to the internet directly. Or you can expose it to the internet through your firewall yourself, and access it directly without using their cloud.
Other options are to build your system on an Open Source platform like Domoticz or openHAB. With these systems you know exactly how they work, and can trust that they aren’t providing remote access.
You can then hook up a local-only camera and then view it through the hub from anywhere.
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any stranger who wants to is welcome to listen to me take a crap. Particularly after I overindulge in delicious greasy cheesy Mexican food. If that doesn’t cure them of their creepy tendencies, then nothing will!
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They’re having Super Bowl parties in the basement of your life, and you are providing the beer.
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Anybody involved in any type of nefarious activity probably needs to stay away from smart home tech, for the rest of us it probably doesn’t matter.
Thanks. Clearly I have some reading to do. 
I bet that many people who ended up in gulags and death camps also believed “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” at one point too.
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If the UK doesn’t make being Agnostic a arrastable crime I think I’m safe
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I hope you are right.
Just because you have something to hide doesn’t mean that you are harming people. The German legal system said it was OK to be transgender on January 29th 1933 . The next day the Nazis took power and that ended. This bit of history has been in my mind a lot recently, with the reforms to the gender recognition act being discussed in parliament and the press (yes, I’m British too).
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Doesn’t that assume that what’s nefarious activity has a stable meaning that can’t be turned against certain groups of people? Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that many Americans were second class citizens with less rights under the law. These modern means of surveilling the general population can easily be turned to oppressive means…
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sigh
“The innocent have nothing to fear from government surveillance”
I can’t count the number of things wrong with that mindset even if I take off both shoes.
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