New heating (and cooling) system

[dagibbs]

I have a new furnace setup -- heat-pump (for cooling, and not-too-cold heating) with gas furnace switch-over for colder-weather heating. Of course, this meant getting a new "smart" thermostat. I ended up with an Ecobee3 lite. (Which seems to get relatively good reviews.) Of course, the first thing the manual talks about is matching it with your wifi, and registering online. *sigh*

I'm not in the IOT industry, but I'm close enough to know that security is, if considered at all, considered last. But, this device seems to have a simple wifi on/off setting, so I'm willing to allow it enough connectivity to setup & register, before mostly walling it off from the internet of predators.