You've done the research, bought the "local control" devices, and built what you thought was a privacy-respecting smart home—only to discover your gadgets are still quietly phoning home. In this episode, Chelsea Miller shares the results of four months of rigorous testing on Matter 1.4 devices, including 30-day air-gapped network trials and packet captures that reveal which products actually deliver on their local control promises. If you're serious about building a smart home that doesn't depend on cloud servers or leak your data to manufacturers, this breakdown will show you exactly what to look for and which devices passed the strictest privacy tests.

• True local operation means testing actual packet behavior, not trusting marketing claims—run devices on an air-gapped network and verify automations still work when your internet co ...