Tom

Afaik most hue devices use zigbee. If you have a zigbee stick for your pi you should be able to directly connect the plug to home assistant (using the zha integration or zigbee2mqtt) without any hue hub or app. https://zigbee.blakadder.com/Philips_LOM004.html

If you’re not self hosting the server there is a central server you can use. To sign up there you have to provide an email address, which is considered personal identifiable information. If you’re self hosting the backend nothing is shared or collected. You can look at the privacy policy for more info. https://kitchenowl.org/privacy/

Take a look at KitchenOwl, it’s FOSS, supports shared shopping lists, recipes, and meal plans. https://kitchenowl.org/ (Disclaimer: I’m the creator)