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I got Sonoff relay switch, you can use guest account for it. But yeah all these smaet thing require a server and internet connection, so creating an account is mandatory in most case. One time my internet is down outside my control and i can't switch on my ventilation fan and have to use the manual switch on it, it's quite annoying. Kinda wish there's one made for just local because i don't need to use it remotely.
If you're willing to take the time to learn, you could always setup your own local home assistant server.
https://www.home-assistant.io/
I personally love having full control over my smart devices locally, as well as being able to use a variety of different brands seamlessly!
The learning curve can be rather steep though, especially if you aren't already tech savvy.
I have a lightbulb that I can change the colour temperature of. There's no internet or app connection, you toggle through the different states by rapidly turning it off and on again. Whoever designed it deserves a medal
The real solution: Buy your own domain name, and make a catch-all email address. Every account gets a new address with that account’s company in the email. Target is target@[your domain].[tld]… The benefit is that you can see exactly who is selling your info to spammers, and easily burn those accounts. You start getting spam sent to that target address? Congrats, now you know Target has sold your info and you can set a rule to automatically send any target@ emails straight to your trash. Also, get a damned password manager so every account has a unique password.
Create a fake persona. This persona has a fake name, birthday, favorite food, first pet, etc… Memorize everything about this fake person, or even just make a note about them in your phone. And none of it is real. This fake person’s info is used for all of your signup info. So when shitty fucking companies get hacked and lose all of your info, the hackers never actually got any of your info. And if you ever see spam addressed to that fake persona, you know you can immediately discard it.
Between the catch-all email address and the fake persona, you’re basically immune to all of the typical ads, phishing, data breaches, etc…
Fyi, this can be done with Gmail as well. Just add a plus sign at the end of your email. I.e. your_email+target @ Gmail.com
Except most companies have wised up to this, and automatically scrub anything after the +. Because why wouldn’t they?
What service do you use for the catch all emails? I use "simple login" currently with my own domain. But, I'd love to look at other options.
It depends on the mail server/provider. As a datapoint, I use Zoho Mail with 4 of my domains and they all have a catch-all that points to a single inbox.
None of the boomers I know care about this and some even have duplicate accounts due to forgetting about them.
My girlfriend always jokes with me that despite being tech-competent I am an old Luddite about tech. It is never more true than when something asks me to make an account.
How else are they going to email you 20 times about changes to their privacy policy?
And then the inevitable email when they have to admit that all the data they gathered on you was stolen and that there is nothing you can do about it.