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submitted 7 hours ago by TheIPW@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Mainstream tech advice treats cheap Wi-Fi smart plugs as harmless convenience, totally glossing over how much telemetry leaks out to overseas cloud servers by default.

Expecting casual users to set up VLANs and firewall drop rules just to stop a £10 light bulb from phoning home is a bit of a joke.

True privacy means local control without corporate middlemen.


Original content by The Unknown Universe, written by a human and not AI generated!

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[-] krashmo@lemmy.world -1 points 2 hours ago

i swear you people just invent difficulty out of nothing.

Says the guy intentionally running a computer off a switched outlet and complaining about how hard that makes things

[-] kibiz0r@midwest.social 6 points 2 hours ago

In my house, the switched outlets are the only grounded ones on the second floor. Kind of a no-win proposition there.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Honestly, if I were running a PC off it I'd go to the trouble of rewiring to bypass the switch.

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, i deal with this too.

When the options are

  1. Rewire the outlets in your wall, or
  2. Add a "smart" layer of abstraction in top,

How are people so surprised that not everyone wants to do electrical work?

[-] irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 9 minutes ago)

I have electrical experience so it's easy for me, but I can definitely understand not wanting to touch AC power. If you do it wrong you can die or burn your house down. It's easy and not a lot of variations, but how many people do you know who just can't follow step by step instructions and the stakes are higher here than just factory reset the device if you mess up.

[-] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

You can modify the outlet so that only one plug is controlled by the switch. It's very easy to do, actually. I had to do this in my home for that exact reason, incidentally - the only available outlet for my PC was on the switch. Just modified the outlet, and now only the top plug is controlled by the switch. I have the lamp plugged in the switch half and my PC in the other half.

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 35 minutes ago

I watched a video about how to do this, and i would not be comfortable doing it.

I'm glad it is easy for you though!

this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
87 points (100.0% liked)

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