Are you also getting the feeling that this was the intention the whole time? To "clean house" as it were and cause an exodus by certain people they deemed to be...freeloading...or not conducive to their future bottom line? Those who tend to have a negative impact (or drag) on their advertising and investor pools?

Because that's been my feeling all along.

All my cameras are cheap wireless webcams with absolutely no ability to communicate outside the local network. They connect to a home built Linux system that I vetted personally.

Honestly, it's not that hard. But most folks don't know that or care. They just want to buy, plug in, and go. That the device they brought into their home and just attached to the same network that has all their photos, access to bank accounts, etc might be a spy device doesn't even occur to them.

This is exactly what I was thinking as well. Why is it so hard for folks to separate what someone creates from the creator? If we found out the person who created, say, the bandaid, was a militant Nazi homophobe who advocated for marriage at the age of 6, should we feel guilty every time we need to cover a cut or scrape?

Personally, I don't know much at all about Linus, what he prefers for breakfast, whether he wears slippers in the house or goes barefoot, and so on. He could staunchly advocate that my country do away with its present form of government and declare him dictator for life for all I care.

I like Linux. I use Linux. It gets the job done. End of story.

Ditto. It's for this very reason that I create my own "smart devices" which only have the ability to communicate locally inside my network. When I need to reach them, I do it via a VPN that uses high encryption and specifically tailored non-standard settings.

Trust off the shelf stuff likely made in China inside my home? Uh...that's a big fat NOPE.