One of the reasons techies are burning out is because they are tired of seeing the promise of a new tech and watching it be used to enable surveillance.

For a fridge the functionality as an appliance shouldn’t be linked to the functionality as a device with a web browser. Ice bucket low? Sensor sends signal to app, fine. But the fridge doesn’t need to know that; it can keep using the float switch or whatever it used to before “smart”. Temperature tracking same thing - bolt a sensor and hook it to the app, but don’t use that app and sensor to control the fridge.