Homeowners are generally very eager to add the latest gadgets to their homes. They buy smart speakers, smart televisions, or any other smart appliance without regard to the security risks these devices might pose. Not only does a smart device collect data for its basic operation, but it also stores the information on the device and often on the cloud. Most often the device is managed from a mobile phone application. Unauthorized access to the devices can have a disastrous impact for the homeowner. Consequences include jeopardy of access controls when locks are opened, financial lost when fridges are compromised, loss of private data and many more risks when cloud data is compromised. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness to the education of the unsuspected homeowner on the privacy invasion risks involved in the modern smart home. Guidelines for homeowners are developed from combining results from a literature review and an empirical study. The empirical investigation was done as a study on data from documents. Data was collected from two main sources, manufacturers’ documents (in the form of technical manuals) and from online reviews. Data from manufacturers are viewed as data coming from official documents, and data from reviewers are subjective viewpoints which can be seen as open-ended interviews without any detail interview questions. The two sources provide two main viewpoints on the data: firstly, the official view of the manufacturer, and secondly, the subjective view of various reviewers. Content analysis is used to analyze and code the data from an interpretive research paradigm perspective. The contribution of the paper is list of guidelines for homeowners of the risks of smart devices in general and guideline from specific smart devices such as televisions, fridges, speakers, and locks.