Smart home

• The maker. Cloud devices send voice requests, video clips, sensor events and usage data to the vendor. In March 2025 Amazon removed the option, offered on three Echo models, to process voice requests on the device, so recordings now go to its cloud (TechCrunch).
• People inside the company. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that any Ring employee or contractor could access customers' private videos, and that one employee viewed thousands of recordings of female users, including from bathroom and bedroom cameras (FTC, 2023).
• Police. Ring lets local police ask camera owners in an area for footage through its Community Requests feature, relaunched in 2025 and run partly through a partnership with Axon, a maker of police body cameras. Sharing is voluntary and owners can ignore requests (TechCrunch). Anything stored on a company's servers can also be demanded with legal process.
• Other customers, by mistake. In February 2024 about 13,000 Wyze users were shown thumbnails from other people's cameras after a caching error during an outage (BleepingComputer).
• Attackers. Weak and reused passwords let intruders into about 55,000 US Ring accounts, and some used the two-way audio to harass children and older people (FTC). Unpatched cameras, video recorders and routers are recruited into botnets: in March 2026 an international operation disrupted botnets that had infected over three million such devices (BleepingComputer).
• Neighbours and passers-by. Doorbell cameras record people who never agreed to it. A class action filed in Seattle in June 2026 claims Ring's Familiar Faces feature collected face data from people walking past (TechCrunch).

Cloud-dependent versus local-first

Smart home devices talk over a few common standards. Zigbee and Z-Wave are low-power radio networks whose devices do not use internet addressing, so they can only reach the outside world through the hub that controls them. Thread is a newer low-power mesh network that does use internet addressing (IPv6) and joins your home network through a "border router", often built into a smart speaker or hub. Matter is an application standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) that runs over Wi-Fi and Thread, so a Matter device can be controlled by any compatible hub, including Home Assistant, openHAB, Apple Home, Google Home and Alexa.

What Matter fixes

• Local control. Matter devices are designed so that their core functions work over your home network without an internet connection.
• Choice of hub. One device can be shared with several controllers at once ("multi-admin"). Matter 1.6 (June 2026) added Joint Fabric, which lets several controllers co-manage one shared Matter network (CSA).
• Cameras. Matter 1.5 (November 2025) added cameras, with WebRTC streaming and recording to local or cloud storage (CSA). In principle this lets a hub you choose view and record them.
• Firmware updates without vendor apps. openHAB 5.2 (July 2026) can update Matter devices itself, fetching firmware listed in the CSA's public ledger instead of using the maker's app (openHAB).

What Matter does not fix

• It does not stop a Wi-Fi or Thread device from also talking to its maker's servers, and many devices still push you towards the maker's app and account. Block a device's internet access to test whether it really works locally (see network isolation).
• It says nothing about what the hub does with your data. Controlling a Matter device through a cloud voice assistant still sends your voice requests to that assistant's servers.
• A Matter logo is not a privacy or security rating. Check the support period and the maker's record as you would for any device.

A hub ties your devices together, runs automations and replaces a dozen vendor apps with one interface. The hubs below run on hardware in your home and keep working without an internet connection. The building blocks underneath let you add devices without any vendor cloud.

Hubs

Building blocks

For remote access to a hub, use a VPN into your home network or a service built for it, such as Home Assistant Cloud. Home Assistant's documentation advises against exposing an instance directly to the internet (Home Assistant, VPN guide).

Mainstream assistants listen locally for a wake word and then send what you say to the company's servers. Since March 2025 that applies to every Echo request. Google says its Assistant devices send requests to Google once activated and do not keep the audio by default, and it notes that accidental activations happen when a sound resembles the wake phrase (Google). A local assistant turns speech into text on your own hardware instead.

Microphone switches and settings

• Physical switches beat software buttons. A switch that cuts power to the microphones, like the one on the Voice Preview Edition, works without trusting the software. On closed devices a mute button does what the maker says it does, and you cannot check.
• Unplug when it matters. If a device has no hardware switch, unplug it during sensitive conversations or when visitors have not agreed to be recorded.
• Turn off open-microphone features, such as follow-on mode in Alexa+, which keeps listening after a reply (TechCrunch), or Continued Conversation on Google's speakers (TechCrunch).
• Count every microphone. TVs, remotes, smart displays, cars and phones often have their own assistants. Review and delete stored recordings in each app.
• Keep always-listening devices out of bedrooms and rooms used by people who have not agreed to them.

Cameras are the most sensitive devices in a smart home: they show who lives with you, when the house is empty and who visits. Most consumer brands upload clips to their cloud for viewing, AI features and subscriptions. The most private setup records to a machine in your home, gives the cameras no internet access, and reaches them from outside only through your own VPN.

A local-only camera setup

1. Choose cameras with a standard local video stream (RTSP or ONVIF) and a local web interface, so they work without the maker's app. Home Assistant's ONVIF integration, for example, needs ONVIF Profile S and an H.264 stream (Home Assistant).
2. Record with a local NVR (network video recorder) such as Frigate, which can also detect people and vehicles on your own hardware.
3. Put the cameras on an isolated network or VLAN with no internet access (see network isolation).
4. For remote viewing, connect to your home through a VPN you control instead of opening ports or using the maker's relay (VPN guide).
5. Keep recordings only as long as you need them, and encrypt the disk that stores them (encryption guide).

Local recorders and local-capable cameras

Cloud camera brands to avoid

If you already use one of these platforms, here is how they compare. All three need an account with the company and process at least some voice requests on their servers. Apple encrypts home data end to end by default, while Amazon removed its only on-device voice option in 2025. Whichever you use, you can keep most devices local by choosing Matter, Thread and Zigbee hardware.

Most smart TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR): the TV regularly captures what is on screen and matches it against a database to build a viewing profile for advertising and recommendations. A 2024 study of Samsung and LG TVs found that ACR also works when the TV is only a display for another device over HDMI, and that opting out stopped traffic to ACR servers (IMC 2024 paper).

In December 2025 Texas sued Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL, alleging that their TVs capture screenshots as often as every 500 milliseconds without consent (BleepingComputer). Samsung settled in early 2026 and agreed to stop collecting ACR data from Texans without express consent; it disputes any wrongdoing. The other makers had not changed their practices at the time (BleepingComputer).

• Keep the TV offline. A TV that is never connected to Wi-Fi or Ethernet cannot send viewing data anywhere. Use a separate streaming device for apps, and choose one whose data collection you accept.
• Opt out anyway, in case the TV gets connected later, and check again after updates and factory resets.
• Filter what you cannot unplug. A DNS filter can block many tracking domains and shows what the TV looks up, but blocklists never catch everything (see DNS).
• Be wary of cheap Android TV boxes from unknown brands. The Kimwolf botnet, whose alleged operator was charged in May 2026, included Android TV boxes, streaming devices, digital photo frames and webcams (BleepingComputer).

Robot vacuums map your home, and many carry cameras and microphones for obstacle detection and remote viewing. The maps, and sometimes images, usually pass through the maker's cloud and app.

• At DEF CON 2024, researchers showed that several Ecovacs robots could be taken over via Bluetooth from up to about 130 metres away, giving access to cameras, microphones, room maps and Wi-Fi passwords. The robots have no indicator showing when the camera or microphone is on (TechCrunch).
• The researchers also found data and access tokens left on Ecovacs's servers after an account was deleted, so a resold robot could be used to watch its next owner. Ecovacs first said users need not worry, then promised fixes for two models and its app (TechCrunch).
• If a maker's cloud disappears, robots typically keep basic cleaning but lose app features. TechCrunch noted that if iRobot collapsed, Roombas would still run from their buttons but lose scheduling, room selection and Alexa control (TechCrunch).

Most smart devices run closed software that you cannot inspect and that may stop receiving updates. Treat them as untrusted guests: put them on their own network, so that a compromised camera or plug cannot reach your laptop, phone or file server, and cut off internet access for devices that do not need it.

1. Start with a guest network. Many routers can create a separate Wi-Fi network whose devices get internet access but restricted access to your main network (OpenWrt). It is the easiest first step.
2. Use a VLAN for finer control. A VLAN (virtual LAN) splits one physical network into several separate ones (OPNsense docs). With a router running OpenWrt or OPNsense you can create an IoT VLAN and firewall rules so that your hub can reach the devices, but the devices cannot start connections to your other machines.
3. Block internet access for local-only devices. Cameras, recorders and devices controlled by Home Assistant or openHAB often need no internet at all. Block their outbound traffic at the router, then check that they still work.
4. Plan for discovery. Many devices find each other with multicast discovery (mDNS), which usually stays within one network. Put your hub where it can reach the IoT network, rather than opening everything up.
5. Filter DNS. A DNS filter such as Pi-hole or AdGuard Home can block many tracking domains and show what each device looks up (see DNS).
6. Turn off UPnP on your router. It lets devices open ports to the internet without asking you. OpenWrt advises working out which devices really need port forwards (most do not) and setting those by hand (OpenWrt).
7. Never forward ports to cameras, recorders or your hub. Use a VPN into your home network instead (VPN guide).

• Check the support period before you buy. Since 29 April 2024 UK law has required makers of smart products to publish the minimum period of security updates, with an end date (GOV.UK). The UK National Cyber Security Centre suggests treating that date as a "use by" date (NCSC).
• Install updates promptly, and turn on automatic updates where offered. Unsupported devices stay vulnerable: Wyze ended support for its first camera before fixing a flaw that exposed SD-card recordings, and Bitdefender advised owners to stop using it (BleepingComputer).
• Change default passwords and use a unique password for every device and account, with two-factor authentication where offered (password guide).
• Switch off what you do not use: remote access, cloud features, Bluetooth, and voice assistants built into TVs, remotes and appliances.
• Prefer local protocols. Devices that use Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread or Matter, or that can run ESPHome or Valetudo, can outlive their maker's cloud. When Belkin shut down the Wemo cloud, it said only models set up through Apple HomeKit would keep working.
• Reset before you sell or give away a device, and remove it from your account. The Ecovacs research showed that deleting an account does not always end access on the maker's side.
• Favour makers who publish fixes. Look for a vulnerability-reporting policy and public security advisories, as Home Assistant and Frigate have.

Smart home devices are often set up by one person in a household. After a breakup, or if you suspect a partner or relative is watching you, check who still has access. Removing someone can alert them, so if you may be in danger, contact a domestic abuse support service before changing anything (see Start here).

• In every app that controls devices (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, Ring, lock and camera apps), review the members, shared users and administrators, and remove anyone who should not be there. Apple's Personal Safety guide shows how for the Home app (Apple).
• Change the Wi-Fi password and the router's admin password, then look at the router's list of connected devices for anything you do not recognise.
• Change the passwords of the accounts behind your devices and turn on two-factor authentication.
• Look for devices you did not install, such as cameras, smart plugs and trackers, and see phones and numbers for your phone.
• If you cannot be sure who has access to a device, factory reset it and set it up again under your own account.

1. Does it work without the maker's cloud and account? Look for Matter, Thread, Zigbee or Z-Wave, documented local control (RTSP or ONVIF for cameras), or a local integration in Home Assistant or openHAB.
2. How long will it get security updates, and is that period published?
3. Does it have a microphone or camera it does not need, and is there a physical switch?
4. What does the privacy policy say about recordings, AI training and sharing with partners or police?
5. Is there open-source replacement firmware, such as ESPHome or Valetudo?
6. What happens if the company is sold or goes bust? Recent examples include iRobot, Belkin Wemo and the older Nest thermostats.
7. Can you keep it anonymous? A local-first device bought with cash needs no account at all, while a cloud camera ties every recording to your account whichever way you paid.

• Trusting "local storage" marketing. Eufy advertised local storage while sending face data to its cloud. Test devices with their internet access blocked.
• Putting smart devices on the same network as your computers and phones. One compromised gadget then has a path to everything else.
• Opening ports to reach cameras or a hub from outside instead of using a VPN.
• Leaving new AI features on. Review settings such as Ring's Search Party and Familiar Faces, Alexa+ follow-on mode and Gemini camera summaries in Google Home.
• Forgetting the TV. A connected TV can fingerprint what you watch, including from devices plugged into it.
• Assuming Matter means private. Matter makes local control possible; it does not stop a device or hub from using the cloud.
• Pointing cameras at neighbours or the street without checking the law where you live.
• Keeping devices past their end of support, especially cameras and routers.

• NCSC: Smart devices, using them safely in your homencsc.gov.ukPasswords, updates and support periods, in plain language
• Home Assistant: setting up a local voice assistanthome-assistant.ioSpeech-to-Phrase versus Whisper, and what hardware each needs
• Matter (standard), Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgVersion history from 1.0 (2022) to 1.6 (2026) with sources
• Consumer Reports: How to turn off smart TV snooping featuresconsumerreports.orgStep-by-step ACR opt-outs by brand
• Anselmi et al.: A first look at ACR tracking in smart TVs (IMC 2024)arxiv.orgNetwork measurements of Samsung and LG TVs in the UK and US
• ICO: Domestic CCTV systemsico.org.ukUK duties when a home camera records beyond your property