It always make me think (probably I am just over thinking) since I am new to HA which hardwires to my router via ethernet and it has Internet access. My question is what stops the devices that are integrated with HA from talking to some random cloud server) ?
I have not connected any of those smart devices via wifi its all on Zigbee
In the case of ZigBee (or Z-Wave), devices have the ability to talk to each other and to the controller. But they don’t directly have the ability to talk outside the mesh, even if something like the hub has Internet access.