The easiest smarthome tech uses the cloud to do the heavy lifting. But that means you give up your privacy. And if the company shuts down, so does your smarthome. Here’s how to bypass the cloud in your smarthome setup.
Why a Locally-Controlled Smarthome?
Cloud-powered smarthomes are feature-rich and include some niceties, but they do come with disadvantages.
First, you have to give up a modicum of privacy. Google, Amazon, Apple, and even Microsoft voice assistants used to record everything you said to them and often sent those recordings to humans for review. While Google, Amazon, and Apple have taken steps to alleviate those concerns, Microsoft still hasn’t changed anything. Some cloud-powered devices also record your activities. Manufacturers use the information to improve systems, but in some cases, they sell your anonymized data.
Second, if the company cloud that drives your smarthome tech closes up shop or abandons the smarthome category, your devices will no longer work.
This very thing happened with the Lowe’s Iris and Revolv hubs. Likewise, Best Buy recently announced it’s shutting down the Insignia smarthome line. So, Insignia smart plugs, cameras, and light switches will stop functioning. And if you have an Insignia Smart Wi-Fi Freezer, soon it will be just a freezer.
If you build a locally controlled smarthome, you sidestep all these issues. Your data doesn’t leave your home, and even if a manufacturer quits, your devices keep working.
Keep in mind, though, creating a local-controlled smarthome isn’t for the faint of heart. But here’s what you need to do to kick the cloud to the curb.
Start with a Locally-Controlled Hub
Every smarthome needs a brain to power it. Unfortunately, most of the time, those “brains” involve the cloud. For example, both Wink and SmartThings offer hubs with some amount of local control, but they still reach out to the internet for some features.
Thankfully, you have other options, such as Hubitat, an entirely locally controlled hub. Any command you send to it or automation you set up runs at the local level. Another advantage of Hubitat is it’s a pre-built system. The downside is the process to set it up creates automations similar to complicated router interfaces.
