Independent Research

Privacy Smart Home

Privacy-focused smart home comparisons, buying guides, and local-first implementation playbooks.

Technical buying guides and product comparisons for privacy-minded users who want local control, data ownership, and a cloud-optional smart home.

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Benchmark comparison chart for Hailo-8 versus Google Coral TPU running Frigate object detection on a local NVR mini-PC, showing inference latency in milliseconds, watt-level power draw, and setup complexity scores for privacy-focused home surveillance deployments in 2026.
Comparisons

Hailo-8 vs Google Coral TPU: Local NVR AI Benchmarks

Deep-dive hardware comparison of Hailo-8 M.2 modules and Google Coral TPU for local Frigate NVR object detection—inference ms, power, and deploy paths.

Jul 3, 2026
Privacy Smart Home July 2026 Valetudo rooting matrix for Roborock and Dreame robot vacuums: OTA laptop exploit tier for legacy S5, Dreame UART breakout PCB with secure-boot firmware gates, Roborock FEL disassembly with SkyHigh NAND lockdown warnings, and MQTT IoT VLAN hardening for cloud-free LiDAR maps.
Buying Guides

Valetudo Rooting Guide: Roborock & Dreame Matrix

Revision-level matrix of valetudo supported robots: which Roborock and Dreame firmware builds allow OTA, UART breakout, or are locked by secure boot and NAND.

Jul 2, 2026
Architecture diagram for cloud-isolated Reolink PoE video doorbell setup showing Scrypted Reolink plugin with RTSP and ONVIF rebroadcast, Frigate NVR local recording, Home Assistant automations, IoT VLAN firewall deny WAN rules, and no mandatory Reolink cloud or P2P relay for privacy-focused self-hosted doorbell camera operation in 2026.
How-To

Cloud-Isolated Reolink PoE Doorbell Setup

Configure the Reolink PoE video doorbell for 100% local-only operation via Scrypted, RTSP, and ONVIF—bypass Reolink cloud, record on Frigate, and harden your IoT VLAN.

Jul 1, 2026
Consulting-style infographic comparing WireGuard VPN terminated on an OPNsense firewall with end-to-end ciphertext on the LAN path versus Cloudflare Tunnel with TLS termination and Access policy inspection at Cloudflare edge and outbound-only cloudflared connector to smart home services in 2026.
Comparisons

WireGuard on OPNsense vs Cloudflare Tunnels

Packet-level privacy and metadata analysis of OPNsense WireGuard vs Cloudflare Tunnels for secure, local-first remote access to Home Assistant, NVRs, and IoT.

Jun 30, 2026
Consulting-style infographic comparing WireGuard VPN and Cloudflare Tunnel for Home Assistant remote access in 2026, showing end-to-end encryption on a self-hosted UDP path versus TLS termination and Access policies at Cloudflare edge with outbound-only cloudflared connector to HA on LAN.
Smart Home Privacy

WireGuard vs Cloudflare Tunnel for Private HA Access

WireGuard vs Cloudflare Tunnel for Home Assistant in 2026: trust boundaries, edge TLS termination, port exposure, and which path keeps HA off third-party decryption.

Jun 29, 2026
Step-by-step diagram for local-only Reolink Duo 3 PoE integration with Frigate NVR showing go2rtc http-flv stream ingest, dual-lens stitched main record path, sub-stream object detection, IoT VLAN firewall rules, and YAML config blocks without mandatory Reolink cloud or P2P telemetry for privacy-focused home surveillance.
How-To

Local-Only Reolink Duo 3 PoE Setup for Frigate NVR

Step-by-step Frigate YAML for Reolink Duo 3 PoE: go2rtc http-flv ingest, sub-stream detect, VLAN hardening, and dual-lens stitched record—no cloud telemetry.

Jun 28, 2026