Aside from the privacy issue, all these cloud-connected devices become bricks when the manufacturer goes bust, discontinues the "service", or decides you need to buy a new one because they've deemed yours obsolete.
Yes and no. Yes for the smaller manufacturers, which is why I never buy cloud-anything from them. For the larger ones, they never go bust, but they do cancel. They have enough of a user base that things get rooted and custom solutions are available after death.
