Couple things:
- Most people aren’t aware of these terms when purchasing, installing, or acquiring a home with these products. Removing and replacing devices throughout a home is expensive and time consuming, and they assume (rightfully) that most people won’t go to the trouble
- Even if you are aware of products that may require internet access or poll home to work, it’s still difficult not to end up with them in your house anyway. Try buying a tv or bluetooth speaker without smart features today - it’s not as easy as it should be. And there’s no guarantee that even locally hosted products will stay air-gapped in the future. Why should we normalize the practice now?
- most of these products start out as cheap and noninvasive options when they hit the market, and switch their ToS and brick their products through firmware updates without internet connections (e.g. Hue bulbs)
That said: of course i advocate against these brands. I have several zigbee dimmer switches ready to swap out with leviton already. But that doesn’t mean this information shouldn’t be widely circulated when it surfaces, so that other people know the landscape better when they go to purchase.
BCsven@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
I found this on github to activate tplink kasa plugs and switches to a local IP and never phone home. It swaps the internal server lookup, and allows you to Activate to your wifi SSID with no app github.com/jkbenaim/hs100