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Turning off all the light switches that have been left on in a big house though is a meaningful convenience. I think the privacy point is strong enough without having to trash people's use cases.

No trashing it at all, just contrasting it. I do see the convenience (luxury) of home automation, but when you compare that against accurate mobile mapping, location finding and navigation, the difference in usefulness is orders of magnitude. One can literally save your life.

> having a accurate real-time mapping functionality when on the go.

To be fair, you can have all the maps without the location tracking; the location tracking just tells you where you are on the map.

There is a drinking water appliance in our breakroom that will not dispense water if it can not reach the internet.

This is not the world we should be engineering. Actually, I would say, this is not engineering.