[fps_doug]

Not just that; I'd be OK with closed source firmware if I can just put it on an isolated network and be done with it, but from typical listings on Amazon et al you cannot even tell if the camera works without a mandatory cloud connection.

I've bought a router from TPlink a while ago that wanted me to install a fucking app, create a TPlink account and send all comms over some cloud servers to configure a router that's sitting right next to me, that all the traffic from the very fucking phone is going through. It did have a classic web interface, but it was completely crippled and basically just allowed changing the Wifi SSID and doing a firmware update. There was nothing in the product description about this, and none of the customer reviews mentioned it, because obviously this shit is now completely normal to the average joe.