[masraum]

Originally Posted by Z-man

This gives me pause when I consider installing a smart thermostat... Careful what you sign up for...



https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-energy-companies-remotely-raised-smart-thermostats-temperatures-2021-6#:~:text=Texas%20power%20companies%20automaticall y%20raised,middle%20of%20a%20heat%20wave&text=Texas%20power%20companies%20remotely%20adjust ed,the%20temperature%20to%20save%20energy.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that you've got to sign up for them to have access. That was an option when I got my first smart thermostat 12-13 years ago. I didn't sign up and my thermostat didn't phone home and wasn't reachable by "their cloud" so my thermostat never got messed with by anyone other than me.

Smart IOT stuff for smart home, should, IMO, be reachable on the home network. If you want it reachable from the Internet, you're asking for trouble because the average company that provides service for IOT stuff isn't going to apply that much security to their "cloud" which has access to your stuff.