September 28, 2021. There needs to be values that are more important than the right to keep your successful sauce formula a secret. If you are in the business of developing digital units containing network connected advanced surveillance technology such as high resolution cameras, microphones etc. that operate outside of the owner's1 control and that will be placed inside that person's home's most intimate spaces, you will simply have to accept that you need to compete with something other than your secret sauce. It should be legally and morally apparent that free, open source, privacy respecting hardware and software will be required if a device (a) contains any kind of surveillance technology and (b) will ever be utilized among civilians.
1. However I would not consider the person purchasing such an internet of things (IoT) device to be the actual owner.