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Having a hot mic in my house that there is data to servers that I don't control really doesn't appeal to me. Although I know my Android phone is essentially the same thing, I'm actively looking to replace my version of Android with something different soon as I can.

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And at least with an Android phone it's typically possible to root/wipe and install a custom OS that's completely separated from Google/whoever. There's usually still a few binary blob drivers, and you have to have some trust that the hardware itself isn't malicious, but at least you can be confidant that it's not dependent on/subservient to some online service that's out of your control.

I'm not terribly interested in any home automation/assistant system that requires an always on connection to some external server.

Agreed. I don't like closed-source stuff, but I'd still absolutely use an Echo if it didn't require cloud connectivity. At least then I'd be able to prevent it from reaching outside.

Unfortunately all of the FOSS voice-recognition stuff I've tried has been hacky at best.

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