So, I’m tired of all these companies having access to my information and data. I’m also trying to limit security concerns from hackers and general lowlifes. Is this possible? Is there anyone who teaches or guides on this (preferably on YouTube as im a bit of a visual learner).
As others have said, Home Assistant is a great option, built from the ground up to be both completely local and private if you want, as well as extremely flexible. My entire house runs mostly on zwave and zigbee for lighting, security, power monitoring, hvac, cameras, and sensors, and those are kept completely local, no clouds, no companies, all running on a mini pc in my closet. Plus it’s able to connect to other existing cloud stuff to integrate that don’t have a local option, such as smart TVs, car chargers, smart thermostats, anything you can dream. r/homeassistant and their home-assistant.io are good starting places