My girlfriend bought a PetFeeder for the cat. She knows I'm keen on smart home devices so she bought a smart one which can feed during specific times and has a camera and a microphone build in. Sadly the thing is connected to the cloud so someone in China is watching and listening to us at home 24/7. It's very creepy, so I automated it away by putting a smart switch in between which only can be used from the local Home Assistant (via Zigbee).

This way we can decide when we allow it to turn on the camera and microphone at least, during those times the people who have to monitor us still can see and listen in, but this time on our terms, we can decide what they can see/hear and what not.

I really wish that with the new Matter protocol more smart appliances will be able to be driven local only without sending everything to China. I don't trust the Chinese Communist Party with free access to a audio and video stream 24/7 into our living room.