You can’t get too dumb for me.
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well that’s just dumber and dumberer!
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Yeah I laughed and laughed when I first heard about that. 
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Looks like plenty of good reading there!
Appreciate the app links too! I’ll definitely be digging further into the above info! 
Also, I had planned to use one of my old routers to handle all the automation devices and Alexa.
Ideally, my goal is to have it on its own independent setup, so “normal traffic” is isolated from potential snooping.
I’ll have to continue to dig into things 
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I hear ya! As am I.
But I’m primarily thinking about my mom, and if she goes face down (as she doesn’t carry her phone around the house, frequently forgets it in another room…) then all she’s got to do is say “Alexa, dial 911” (since I’m hoping to tie her phone in via BT).
The couple of outlets are convenience things. For instance if she comes in late with the lights off, she doesn’t have to try and find the lamp (and the switch under the shade). Simply have Alexa turn on the light… Aside from that, I wasn’t planning on going too deep. But of course, she saw a friend of mine’s doorbell, and I had to explain that they weren’t actually home when they answered and were talking to, and could see us. LMAO
So yeah, she lit up like a Christmas tree saying “Oooooh, I like that!” 
And then I explained about the potential with the thermostat. Yeah, Red Foreman moment. “Way to go, dumbass.” /facepalm
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This is a nice idea for Mom. Lots of work digging into a SDK for that.
Some smart devices seem niffty
Your Cats might love a Roomba for Xmas 
Cats Riding Roomba
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Here’s the biggest problem with what you want to do though, unfortunately. If you give one of those devices a link to the internet (which is a requirement), all the hooks and ties built in will report back to Home, so there’s really no way for you to build it so that she could call 911 for example, yet still keep the devices/info off the web. What’s more, Google Home and Echo are 100% cloud based (they are headless devices). They literally have nothing local. So just to get them to work, they need to be online 24/7.
Your best bet may be a service like Life Alert for emergencies, and a separate Linux network will all your own custom home automation, if you can even do that. The world of tech is changing, and most stuff like this simply requires the internet by design.
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You could get her a tablet specifically for the home automation stuff as a compromise… While it would divulge the Amazon stuff, it would not expose a phone’s contacts, call log, email addresses, camera, microphone, other installed apps, whatever. It’s just that so many of these home automation technologies’ features are almost certainly not going to be able to work without the intertubes. My Emerson Sensi thermostat even uses the cloud to make adjustments via the app. Even the Harmony remote sends feedback when I connect it to the PC to make any changes.
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I found these online, might help? I didn’t really know, but these are open source / free to use.
https://calaos.fr/en/ have linux os underneath with android/ios support
https://domoticz.com/ written in c/c++, could run from raspberry pi, smartphone support
http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/ could run on linux, mac, windows. Use perl scripts
http://www.openhab.org/ written in java, could run from anywhere, could be controlled from smartphones, could create your own ui
Every one of them could run from linux, if I’m not mistaken. And have the option to control from smartphones. And most could run from raspberry pi, so could be cheaper. And some could be linked to alexa too.
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This is a brilliant idea!! 
If only I knew where she laid her tablet (two or three months ago now)… /facepalm
She’s used Google voice on occasion (because her sister, and sister-in-law do), so she’s not as averse to the idea. So there are some compromises being made… chuckles
But, I do try and keep her as safe as possible (all things considered). Alexa I don’t mind as much, because I know that Amazon is going to go to further measures than most, and given that a substantial part of their business is Web infrastructure (AWS), and they are a US company (with potential legal recourse)… I trust them more than VA to keep data safe(r), while acknowledging nothing is foolproof.
Basically, Best Practices is all we have.
If I can’t find something to handle the current piddly little outlets, then we’ll send them back, and order some WeMo’s or something similar (with an app/skill that’s far less invasive). It’s not like spending $20-25ea is going to break the bank for her (vs $12ea for the current crap) since it’s only two outlets.
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Much appreciated delltrapp!!
More to look into! 
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I was one of the first Echo customers back in '14 when they rolled them out. I get the thought of it being a wiretap, but then, so many of the apps on our devices are data mining constantly as well. The thought of a microphone rather than a little piece of software somehow makes it feel ‘worse’. In reality, with these things being headless, nothing is stored locally, other than WiFi credentials and the cloud destination. When in the normal operating mode, it is ‘listening’ all the time (unless you mute it) but it is not recording. Only when the wake word is spoken is data recorded and sent to the cloud for interpretation. In that respect, no, Amazon is not simply hitting the record button on our lives, with some drooling dweeb in the cloud wearing headphones cherry picking goodies to wank off to. Using Siri for example is the same thing, only you press a button to initiate rather than speaking a wake word. And don’t forget… many apps require ‘permission’ to access the camera and microphone on your phone, so how do you know they are not surreptitiously listening in or recording video whenever they feel like it?
I’ve found our small Echo farm to be quite useful. From streaming music, to verbalizing requests and responses, using it as an intercom system, alarm, and of course smart home automation, I’ve enjoyed having it around. It’s easy. Sure, I make the Amazon People happy by giving them marketing nuggets, which is their primary target, but I dig all the Jetson’s stuff I can do. Today’s convenience comes with a price.
Well, that hardly solves your problem, Sparks. Sorry.
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You should just get her a few of these, no security threat at all. They run completely “offline”. No cloud connection!
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I have one of these Amazon tablets (fire hd 8?) and at the beginning it was super fascinating, was about to buy everything they have too offer.
From light switches to door bells to automatically turning on coffee maker and washing machine. But I decided not too because after only 2 days, this tablet got on my nerves.
Listens to everything without somebody even saying “alexa” then all the sudden it searches sh… for you or starts talking lol.
I’m not a newb when it comes to electronic or well pcs and such, and I did configure it at the end, but it was extremely creepy lol.
Can just imagine how it must feel having the whole house wired to Alexa but I’m glad you are looking out for your mum. Some people even like that kind of modern stuff, I’m just always a private kind of person and sadly don’t like to trust them.
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Definitely appreciate the additional input!
Looks like this has potential, but (still digging deeper, and reading up on) part of their approach (which, so far, doesn’t appear mandatory) involves a subscription service (though a partner website). Though they appear to have a decent privacy policy!
Appreciate your adding to the options!
/side note
Once again though, it looks like even this option requires you to have an account with Tuya before it’ll ID the devices I currently have (Maxcio, which are obviously rebranded Tuya products).
So, yeah. These are going back. =/
That’s what I get for impulse buying the sockets on Black Friday…
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If you want offline you need a echo plus second gen, and then you can run a pi server for the house. The Echo plus second gen isn’t headless.
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Oh and if you put hass.io on the pi it doesn’t matter if the internet goes down, is free and open source, also you don’t have to let Alexa out of the cage.
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