[leppr]

Why would a "smart home" need to interact with the outside world? Most applications cited in the story certainly don't require it, and if they do, there's no technical reason they need to be connected directly to the internet.

If people are too hesitant to give up their homes' security and privacy to corporations, some company will eventually come up with an open-source self-hosted solution that doesn't suffer from those issues.

[m4x]

There are already a bunch of open solutions. You can self host OpenHAB or Home Assistant right now and integrate many different devices from many different manufacturers using open protocols like Z-Wave.

In such a case neither the devices nor the main controller need to phone home.

[khedoros1]

It shouldn't, but it seems like most of the smart devices being marketed do, apparently for remote monitoring and access to data.