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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OPNsense firewall diagram for local-only IP cameras on a dedicated VLAN showing RTSP and ONVIF streams from PoE cameras to a Frigate NVR on a separate subnet, blocked WAN egress arrows, trusted LAN access only to the NVR web UI, and deny-by-default east-west rules preventing cameras from reaching Home Assistant or workstations.
How-To

OPNsense Firewall Rules for Local-Only IP Cameras

Step-by-step OPNsense camera VLAN rules to isolate RTSP/ONVIF cameras on an IoT segment while allowing your local NVR (Frigate, Blue Iris) to pull streams—no cloud.

Jul 8, 2026
Layered hardening diagram for UniFi Protect local-only privacy showing cloud adoption bypass, WAN deny firewall rules on camera VLAN and UNVR console, secure RTSP paths to Home Assistant on trusted LAN, and local admin authentication without UI.com SSO binding.
How-To

How to Harden UniFi Protect for Local-Only Privacy

Harden UniFi Protect for local-only privacy: bypass cloud adoption, block WAN egress on NVR and cameras, route RTSP securely to Home Assistant, and validate with firewall audits.

Jul 7, 2026
Technical workflow diagram for setting up Hailo-8 and Hailo-8L M.2 AI accelerators with Frigate NVR on Proxmox VE, showing HailoRT driver install on the host, lxc.mount.entry bind mounts for /dev/hailo0, Intel QuickSync decode pairing, and Docker Compose device maps for local privacy-focused object detection without cloud video upload on Intel N100 homelab hardware as of July 2026.
How-To

How to Setup Hailo-8 with Frigate NVR on Proxmox

Step-by-step guide to pass Hailo-8/8L M.2 AI accelerators through Proxmox VE into Frigate NVR Docker: HailoRT host install, LXC bind-mount, VM PCIe, and QSV.

Jul 6, 2026
Architectural comparison diagram of Home Assistant OS running on Proxmox VE versus bare metal with USB Zigbee coordinator passthrough paths and Google Coral TPU attachment for local AI add-ons, highlighting latency layers, Proxmox Backup Server integration, and privacy-focused local control without mandatory cloud dependency as of July 2026.
Comparisons

Home Assistant Proxmox vs Bare Metal: USB & TPU

Home Assistant on Proxmox vs bare metal: USB Zigbee coordinator latency, Coral TPU passthrough for local AI, and Proxmox Backup Server integration in 2026.

Jul 5, 2026
OPNsense firewall diagram blocking hardcoded DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS bootstrap IPs on Samsung, LG, and Sony smart TVs: NAT redirect on port 53 to AdGuard Home, deny rules intercepting Google and Cloudflare resolver IPs on ports 443 and 853, with query log visibility on a privacy-focused TV VLAN as of July 2026.
How-To

How to Block Hardcoded DoH and DoT Bootstrap IPs on Smart TVs

Step-by-step OPNsense tutorial to intercept port 853 and block hardcoded DNS-over-HTTPS bootstrap IPs on Samsung, LG, and Sony smart TVs—verified July 2026.

Jul 4, 2026
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