FWIW I went ahead and kept the Sensi thermostat, to the best of my knowledge it does not have a microphone or a camera.

I kinda like if I wake up early I can grab my phone and bump the stat up a bit to warm up the house.

Also fun that I can adjust the stat incognito.

Lol, you whack jobs make it sound like Google exec's broke into your house in the middle of the night and installed these "hidden" microphones to spy on you.

Again, if you buy a smart device and YOU WILLINGLY bring it into your home and are too stupid to understand that device needs to hear/see to perform those smart features, then just stick to tin foil.

Please! Stop! My sides are hurting!

My trusty programmable T-stat died last year so I was forced to get a new one. I checked out the *smart* devices and come to find out a huge chunk of our CA taxpayer $$ is subsidizing the purchase of these things. Since I already paid the tax I figured I should cash-in on the free Nest T-Stat. Thanks uncle Jerry?!?! I bought the down market $169 Nest and got a $150 rebate so it was dirt cheap.

Review: I like it, it works fine. Instead of "hold" it has an "Eco mode" with a cute green leaf display to make Prius drivers feel all virtuous. Set the Eco mode with a wide range like 60F-82F and it keeps the house within reason all the time. Wanna turn it up for a few hours on a rainy night? 3 clicks on your phone and the heat is rising.

I did set a schedule but rarely use it and disabled the home/away function. I don't need my
Nest T-Stat to greet me when I walk in the door with the heat on. I don't see much benefit to all this fancy smart scheit but it was practically free and the Eco Mode works fine for 90% of my usage. As good or better than the old one.