JLab8

@geoffreyfowler @washingtonpost @Shira as someone selecting these products, it'd be really helpful if outlets could distinguish between products that require a lan (wired or wifi) to operate/communicate and ones that require an *internet connection* to do so. Having to rely on my home wifi working to turn something on or off is a very different proposition than having to rely on my ISP or some cloud server to trigger or adjust something.

@geoffreyfowler @washingtonpost @Shira With ZigBee (or ZWave), I can know for sure that a device cannot phone home, and I can pick a hub that either doesn't, can't, or works without internet access. WiFi devices can be isolated/blocked explicitly, with whatever impact that may or may not have on functionality.

@geoffreyfowler @washingtonpost @Shira With Matter/Thread, are some of these devices going to be able to use the elevated network privileges (traffic not blocked by my firewall) of border routers to get to the open internet? Unclear! It seems like a strong possibility!

@kashhill@mastodon.social any chance you could follow up with Illinois state officials/lawyers to see how this would fly under BIPA, as well as California officials re: CCPA? Would be illustrative of the need for legislation and how far the legislation needs to go.